Current Information:

Age-29

427, Wick Road, Hackney Wick

On 16th January, 1915, the 2nd Scottish Borderers battalion of 13 Brigade, 5th Division moved into trenches in Sector D at Wulverghem in Belgium, to the south of Ypres, where they remained until relieved on two days later. The battalion diary has nothing recorded on 17th January so it is not known how William Spinsby was killed on that day. The attrition rate among British soldiers on the Western Front was on average 300 each day and 60% of these were as a result of shellfire. When not involved in an actual battle it was either shell fire or a sniper’s bullet that caused most deaths and injuries.