Wilfred Williams was working as a County labourer, living in Clyde, when he joined the Army in 1917. It would seem that Army discipline was not to his taste.
Wilfred's conduct sheet contains a number of offences, occurring in late 1917/early 1918 while in New Zealand. They are - "failure to appear on parade," "whilst a prisoner in detention, refusing to obey a lawful command, using obscene language to an NCO," "AWOL from Trentham."
The last charge was initially desertion and he was court-martialled for this serious offence. The offence was downgraded to Absent Without Leave, possibly due to his leaving camp on February 4, 1918, but reporting back on the 12th, rather than being arrested out of camp.
When he got to Suez, Egypt, in May, 1918, he was convicted of: "disobeying a lawful command given buy his superior officer/making a false statement/hesitating to obey a command given by his superior officer." These offences had occurred while at sea.
Next month, he was in hospital with diarrhoea which progressed to dysentery. He was listed as "dangerously ill," then removed from the list, then listed as "dangerously ill" with typhoid on August 12. He died nearly a month later.
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