Private William Henry Hinchcliffe
William Hinchcliffe was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Hinchcliffe. He had a younger brother and sister. The family immigrated to Canada in 1913, going first to St. George for one year, then to Paris. William was a member of St James Anglican Church and choir and Men’s Society. In 1911, he married Mabel Rune and they had one daughter. William was employed as a hosiery boarder at Penmans No. 1 mill.
William was 27 years old when he enlisted with the 125th Battalion. He was a member of the 9th Platoon that embarked aboard the S.S Scandinavia on February 12, 1916. The 9th and 10th Platoons were the first contingent of soldiers from Paris, nearly 100 men, to go overseas. William went over to France in 1916 with the Canadian Machine Gun Corps. He died of his wounds on September 30, 1916 in the vicinity of the village of Tilloy-lez-Cambrai, which was a significant operational area of the Western Front during the Battle of the Somme. The Battle of the Somme came to typify the futility of trench warfare in World War I. The battle began on July 1, 1916 with a massive attack by hundreds of thousands of British and French troops, who would be mowed down by German machine guns as soon as they rose from their trenches. More than 57,000 British and Commonwealth troops, including the Newfoundland Regiment, would be killed in one day, the highest single day losses in the history of the British Army. Of the 790 Newfoundlanders who went over the top, 710 were either killed or wounded.
The 4th Canadian Division arrived on the Somme in mid-October to take over from their exhausted fellow Canadians who had been fighting there. They faced a battlefield that had turned to mud and a determined German defence that continued to take a murderous toll on Allied attacks. Despite these great challenges, the Canadians finally captured the shattered remains of Regina Trench on November 11. A week later, in the final attack of the Battle of the Somme, the Canadians took Desire Trench. There were no further advances as the winter weather came and the offensive staggered to a halt. The ‘Big Push' had resulted in the Allied lines being moved forward only some ten kilometres. The enormity of the lives wasted for such a minimal gain is difficult to comprehend.
William is buried in the Raillencourt Communal Cemetery Extension, five kilometers west of Cambrai.