10th March 1918

Ordinary Seaman William Charles Edward Hadland died of acute nephritis [inflammation of the kidneys] at the Royal Naval Hospital Gosport on 10th March 1918. He had enlisted less than a month previously and was in training on HMS Victory when he became ill.

He was born on 15th February 1900 at Willesley, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire and was the second of the four children of William (a farm bailiff) and Anne Elizabeth (née Kimberley) who had married in the Meriden district in 1892. The couple had moved to Willesley,  by 1898 and remained there until at least 1906, when the youngest child, Ethel, was born.

By 1911, the family had moved to Rowington, Warwickshire. By the time William Charles Edward Hadland joined the Navy on 27th February 1918, shortly after his 18th birthday, the family was living at Canal Cottage, Hudsons Bridge, Lapworth.

Ordinary Seaman Hadland is buried at Haslar Royal Naval Cemetery, Gosport and is also commemorated locally on war memorials at Lapworth and Hockley Heath.

If you have any further information, please let us know.

Tracey
Heritage & Local Studies Librarian

tel.: 0121 704 6977
email: heritage@solihull.gov.uk