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Remembrance
- The Yorkshire Regiment, First World War 2nd Lieutenant Robert WILFORD Close window to return to main page |
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2nd Lieutenant Robert Wilford.
5th Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment. Son of Robert Levi Wilford and Jane
Eliza Wilford, of The Black Bull Hotel, Yarm, Yorks. B.A. (London University).
Died 23 November 1917. Aged 23.
Commemorated Panel 5, CAMBRAI MEMORIAL, LOUVERVAL.
Robert was the fourth son of Robert Levi and Jane Eliza Wilford. Robert Levi was the licensee of the Black Bull Hotel, Yarm and Clerk to the Cemetery Committee. Robert Levi, the father died in 1916, and there were 9 other children in the family.
Robert was educated at Yarm Grammar School, where he won a North Riding Scholarship.
He was also a pupil at Middlesbrough High School (Middlesbrough College).
He passed junior and senior Cambridge exams, gaining an exemption in the London
Matriculation exam.
Being successful in winning a training college scholarship he spent two and
a half years at University College, Nottingham where he received the Board
of Education certificate for Teaching.
He passed the Intermediate BA at London University and was reading for the
final part when war started.
He was posthumously awarded a full BA (War Degree) on 19 Jun 1918.
Robert Wilford joined the University OTC in which he remained for a year before
being commissioned into the Yorkshire Regiment on 23 Nov 1916. He went to
France in January 1917 and was killed on 23 November 1917.
In 1919 his mother presented the Catholic Church in Yarm with a beautiful
Holy Water Stoup in the form of an angel holding forth the bowl,in memory
of her son. Unfortunately, this bowl no longer survives.
The photo of 2nd Lieutenant Robert Wilford is from the website Yarm1914 where some additional biographical information can be obtained.
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