William Albert's Story.
Private William Albert Oakes died of wounds on 18th October 1916. He was 19 years old. He is buried at Couin New British Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais, France.
William was born on 19th June 1897, at 11 Gladstone Street in Crewe, and baptised on 7th July. He was the eldest son of John Oakes (1865 - 1914) and Winifred nee Pickersgill (1867–1915) and brother to Ernest Oakes (1901–1944) and Martha (1887 - ) and Eliza Alice Latham (1889 - 1966), his step-sisters from his mother's first marriage. The 1901 census shows the family at Gladstone Street: father John Oakes a blacksmith striker, mother Winifred, step sisters Martha and Eliza Alice, and his uncle George Pickersgill, a general labourer from Liverpool. By 1911, the family had moved to 11 Furber Street.
In May 1914, when he was sixteen, William was employed as an engine cleaner at Crewe North Sheds, and he worked there until 22nd December. That autumn, in November 1914, his father died at the age of 48, and just a few months later, in February 1915, his mother died of burns when her nightdress caught fire. William and his brother Ernest went to live with their stepsister Eliza, who had married Arthur Edward Walley (1884 - 1926) on Christmas Day 1912. Their address was 25 Barnfield, Crewe.
In June 1915, William enlisted into the 2nd R.M Bn R.N Div Royal Marine Light Infantry. Eighteen months later, on 17th October 1916, he was wounded in action, and died the following day.
Private W. A. Oakes
Private William Albert Oakes, of the Royal Marine Light Infantry, was wounded in action on October 17th and died on the following day. He joined the Marines in June 1915. He was the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Oakes, 11 Furber Street, Crewe, and since the death of his parents had lived with his sister, Mrs. Walley, 25 Barnsfield, Crewe. He was formerly employed at the Crewe North Sheds; he was a member of Christ Church Sunday School and the Boy Scouts. He was in his nineteenth year.
Nantwich Guardian. Friday, November 3, 1916.
William's stepsister Eliza made a claim for war pension:
William's younger brother Ernest Oakes (1901 - 1944) served in the Royal Navy in WW2 and died in a Japanese POW camp in 1944 of pulmonary tuberculosis.
Additional research by Shena Lewington and May Ellen Hockenhull (December 2025)