Born: c1877
Died: 15 July 1916, Somme
Buried:
Address: 64 Crag Road, Windhill
Parents: Jack & Esther
Spouse: Eliza
Siblings:
Occupation: canal bargeman
Organisations/clubs:
Military
Rank: Private
Medals/awards:
Rolls of Honour: Christchurch, Windhill; Thiepval Memorial
Children: Mabel & Alan Binns, John & Esther Spencer
Regiment: West Yorkshire
Wilson Spencer
Wilson Spencer’s death on the
Somme got a very brief mention in
the Shipley Times & Express on 11
August 1916: “Pte Wilson Spencer
of 64 Crag Road, Windhill and of
the West Yorkshires, was killed in
action on July 14th. He enlisted
last September.”
But thanks to the census we are
able to learn a little more of an
interesting life.
In 1881 he was just three years old
and living with his parents, Jack
and Esther Spencer, at Halls
Buildings, Windhill. Esther was
born in Bradford, Jack was a
woolcomber born in Windhill.
By 1901, 22-year-old Wilson was
alone on the barge ‘Sarah,’ moored
somewhere on the Leeds &
Liverpool Canal between the basin
with the Bradford Canal and
Bingley.
Ten years on and Wilson is still
working as a canal bargeman but
is now living in a three-roomed
house at 68 School Hill, Windhill
with his wife Eliza The couple have
been married nine years and
Wilson appears to have taken in
children, Mabel and Allan Binns
from Eliza’s earlier marriage.
Wilson and Eliza have two
children, John Wilson Spencer,
aged 4, and Esther May Spencer
aged three months. It appears that
two more children have died.
