26 Lower Water St
Deveneley
204024
The First World War records for William Finch are quite hard to find. The address above gives no indication that Lower Water Street is in fact in Burnley and is not in the fictitious town created in error. I disregarded this record for some weeks until I looked at this William Finch in "Deveneley" and found that it was correct.
The address at enlistment is given as 421, Warrington Road, Lower Ince, Wigan. However, Warrington Road is soon crossed out and replaced by Lower Water Street the home that saw the death of William's son Harold in 1917. The occupation of William Finch at enlistment is given as haulage hand and later as a motor driver. This designation indicates that at least the early part life William Finch had escaped the family tradition of being a coal miner although he would later go back to that occupation.
At enlistment William was 22 years 11 months old. However the more remarkable statistics come about when we start to see comments made about the physical state of William who was, by modern standards, a person of diminutive build. William's height is recorded at 5'2" which is, by modern standards, quite short. However the diminutive height is matched by a diminutive weight and William's weight is recorded as 122llb which makes him around 9 stones in all. The examining officer found that William's chest was 35 inches when expanded with a 3 inch range of expansion.A scar below the right and eye was present. In terms of physical state; this is recorded as "good" and William is seen to have brown hair, brown eyes and a dark complexion.
In terms of war record there is little to go on. The documents that are available are difficult to read in electronic form and may not be that revealing in a hard copy format. William is seen to have been awarded the British War Medal and see Victory Medal although this seems to have been fairly standard for most servicemen.
Despite a undistinguished war record, William was wounded March 29 1918 and appears to have been transferred to a hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne in England and it seems that he stayed there until June 2, 1918 when he was granted a one week furlough ending June 11 1918. We presume that he went home to his wife and family.
William was seen as being fit for duty to the "command depot" although not fit for "duty" or "employment" as the other options. This outcome indicates that William's injuries although perhaps not life threatening were certainly serious enough to warrant hospitalisation and being invalided out of the immediate battle zone and quite a protracted period of convalescence.
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