Corporal in the Rifle Brigade.
Andrew Behan has researched this man: Lance Corporal William John Dilley was born in 1896 in Hendon the eldest son and the second of the five children of William Joseph Dilley and Frances Ellen Dilley née Wildbore. His father had many occupations, including being a groom, a publican and a gardener. The 1901 census shows him living with his parents and sister at The Star & Garter public house, 87 Park Street, Luton, Bedfordshire, but by the time of the 1911 census he, together with his parents and four siblings, was residing at 2 Stowe House, North End, Hampstead. His occupation was given as a Newsboy for W.H. Smith & Son.
He enlisted at St Pancras into the 16th Battalion, The Rifle Brigade, service number P/677 and was killed in action, aged 19 years, on 22 October 1916. He was buried in Plot IV, Row B, Grave 17 in the Longueau Brittish Cemetery, Longueau, Amiens, Somme, France. On 27 March 1917 his father was sent his army effects totalling £4-11s-0d and on 3 December 1919 his father received his £6-0s-0d war gratuity. He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
