WILLIAM MURRAY DOBIE 

Lieutenant William Murray Dobie was the son of Dr Herbert Dobie, a Chester physician, and Mrs Margaret Ann Dobie of Upper Northgate Street, Chester. In 1911, whilst fifteen years of age, he was a pupil at Marlborough College. The census recorded the family home in Chester as occupied by his parents and his three sisters, Elizabeth Dobie, aged 12, Edith Margaret Dobie, aged 8, and Constantia Helen Scotland Dobie, aged 4. The household also employed three domestic servants: Catherine Edith Boycott, housemaid; Mary Hinde, cook; and Mary Elizabeth Schofield, children's nurse.

Following his education at Marlborough College, William entered Cambridge University, where he joined the Officers' Training Corps after the outbreak of the First World War. He subsequently received a commission in the Royal West Kent Regiment and proceeded to France in May 1915.

On the morning of 9 April 1916, William was supervising work on the battalion's wire entanglements in front of the fire trench alongside Captain Geoffrey Yates Gross, commanding D Company, and Company Sergeant-Major Fred John Crossley. At approximately 5 am., with a thick mist lying on the ground, the party came under sudden enemy rifle fire. Lieutenant Dobie, Captain Gross and Company Sergeant-Major Crossley were killed, together with private Albert George Daniels. The battalion war diary recorded that all four men were killed whilst engaged in this work in front of the trenches. Lieutenant Dobie was only twenty years of age at the time of his death. 


© Cheshire Roll of Honour

Lieutenant William Murray Dobie and his three companions, all killed whilst supervising the wire party on 9 April 1916, lie side by side in Faubourg d'Amiens Cemetery, Arras.

“I GIVE UNTO THEM ETERNAL LIFE”

John X.28