Current Information:

Aged-19

St Loy's Road, Tottenham

Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery, Fleurbaix, France

In September, 1914, the 1/7th Middlesex battalion went to Gibraltar, the first Territorial Army unit to go abroad. In February, 1915, they returned home and in March they went to France where they joined 23 Brigade of 8th Division. On 12th April they moved into trenches at Le Trou, near Fleurbaix where they remained until relieved on 18th April. William Brewin was killed on 13th April but the battalion diary provides no further information concerning his death. 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.