Current Information:

Enlisted-New Cross

Wulverghem-Lindenhoek Road Military Cemetery, Belgium

On 2nd February, 1915, the 1st Royal West Kent battalion of 13 Brigade, 5th Division, moved into the front line at Wulverghem, just south of Messines in Belgium. The trenches here were close to the River Douvre and consequently were often flooded and up to the men’s waists in places, a situation made worse by some heavy shelling of their trenches by the enemy artillery. The battalion diary entry for 4th February recorded that one man from ‘D’ Company was killed by a sniper and was buried in the Wulverghem-Lindenhoek Road cemetery that night. William Stanford was the battalion’s only casualty on this day so it is safe to assume that he was the sniper’s victim.