Current Information:

Born-London

Vieille-Chapelle New Military Cemetery, Lacouture, France

On 27th February, 1915, the 1st Liverpool (Kings) battalion of 6 Brigade, 2nd Division moved into the front line at Givenchy, near La Bassée, where they remained until relieved on 3rd March. The battalion diary provides very little information about their time spent here so the circumstances behind the death of William Keeley, who was killed on 28th February are not known. 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.