William's Story.
EARLY LIFE
William Torkington was baptised at St Peter's Church, Prestbury, Cheshire on 6 September 1896, the son of Mary and John Walker Torkington, a farmer of Adlington, Cheshire.
By 1901 John Walker Torkington was an innkeeper, and four-year-old William was living at 5 Mill Street, Macclesfield with his parents and siblings Mary (21), John W (21) and Annie (15). Ten years later William's father was the proprietor of the Pack Horse Hotel at 2 Jordangate, Macclesfield where the whole family was living.
The family was living at Underbank Farm, Gawsworth when William enlisted in the Army, and later moved to Egerton Villas, Altrincham Rd, Wilmslow, Cheshire.
WW1 SERVICE
William enlisted in June 1915 and was drafted overseas on 17 November 1915. He was killed in action on 30 June 1917, aged 20.
The death of Private Torkington was reported in the Macclesfield Advertiser on 8 June 1917:
PRIVATE WILLIAM TORKINGTON, OF WILMSLOW (KILLED) - We are sorry to state that Mr and Mrs John Walker Torkington, of Egerton Villas, Water Lane, Wilmslow, and late of Gawsworth, received on Thursday last word from the War Office that their younger son, Private William Torkington, was killed in action on 30th April. Private Torkington, who was 20 years of age, joined the Army in June 1915, and was drafted with the Cheshire Regiment to Mesopotamia in November of the same year. While with the relief column bound for Kut he was wounded, and was in hospital with a fractured jaw in India and Egypt, being discharged in February of this year. Private Torkington rejoined his regiment in Mesopotamia on March 30, and was killed as stated. Prior to joining the Army he was studying for the calling of an electrical engineer, and also assisted his father with the farm at Gawsworth. Mr John Walker Torkington's elder son is with the forces in France.
COMMEMORATION
Private William Torkington has no known grave and is commemorated on Panel 14 and 62 of the Basra Memorial, Iraq. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission holds casualty details for Private William Torkington, and he is listed on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website.
Locally, Private William Torkington is commemorated on the Macclesfield Grammar School, Wilmslow (Mill Street and St Bartholomew's Church), Gawsworth (Church Lane and St James Church) and Adlington (Roundy Lane) war memorials. In Wilmslow William is also remembered on the family gravestone at St Bartholomew's Church, grave ref. B.K 17.
SOURCES
GRO (England & Wales) Index: Births
Cheshire Parish Baptism Registers: St Peter’s Church, Prestbury
Census (England & Wales): 1901, 1911
Soldiers Died in the Great War (Find My Past)
British Army Medal Index Cards (Ancestry)
WWI Pension Record Cards (WFA/Ancestry/Fold3)
Commonwealth War Graves Commission website
Lives of the First World War website
Macclesfield Advertiser: 8 June 1917
Research by Rosie Rowley, Macclesfield.