Torrington soldiers fighting with the 8th Devons would continue with William Slee. Born in the Holsworthy parish in 1897, William was the son of Frederick William and Elizabeth Ann Slee. His father, Frederick, has a number of occupations listed as the years go by as we will see. This begins with William’s baptism record, which has the family living at Landcross at the time; this was also the location of the baptism. The baptism record show Frederick as a farmer.

 

Within a few years at 1901, the family had moved to 20 Castle Street, Great Torrington. This time, Frederick, who was born in the town, is recorded as an “auctioneer’s clerk”. As well as Elizabeth, the household is completed with William’s siblings, Agnes, Frederick and Florence, as well as servant Lucy Harris. By 1905, William was enrolled in the Great Torrington Council School for boys.

 

 The final profession attributed to father, Frederick, is in the 1911 census where he is recorded as a “dairyman and cake merchant”, with his wife acting as “assisting in the business”. Little has changed regards to the family’s location and they are still residing at 20 Castle Street. The children in the household, including William, and which also now includes the youngest addition, Harold, are all of school age.

 

As mentioned above, at the outset of war William enlisted with the 8th Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment. Although enlisting in Exeter, his actual residence at the time is recorded as Ilfracombe. We know that he had already seen action and had been wounded in the summer of 1917 [1]. However, William would see far graver action as the 8th Battalion entered into the Battle of Passchendaele.

 

As we learned earlier, the battle soon became mired and fell into a boggy stalemate.  The conditions by the end of October had become atrocious. Any chance of a rapid advance in order to overwhelm the enemy positions had evaporated as the terrain between the opposing trenches was virtually impassable at any reasonable speed. Despite this these odds against them, a further attack was ordered regardless of the conditions. On the 24th October the 8th Devons moved into their new positions close to the front ready for the ‘off’ in the early hours of 26th October. Even before the push came on that morning there were new obstacles; German artillery fire had increased in ferocity and the rain started again in earnest. At zero hour, as predicted, the going was slow and this made perfect targets for the machine guns in the German pillboxes. Despite this, the 8th Devons were able to make reasonable progress. However, as the day wore on the relentless German opposition from machine gun fire, bombardment and counter attack, aided by the slow going terrain, depleted the ranks of the 8th Devons. At 8pm the Devon, as well as the rest of the beleaguered 20th Brigade, were relieved. Although the regiment had seen much fighting over their time in France, this would be their toughest task and greatest casualty toll. In all, 127 were dead or missing with a further 131 missing.

 

Among the dead was William Slee. His death was reported the following month after his family had been notified of the news. He was just 19 years of age. The North Devon reported that “He was a young fellow with the greatest of promise, and he was held in the highest esteem in Torrington and district" [2]. At the time of his death, his mother’s address is recorded as 39 Boston Road, Horfield, Bristol. William’s headstone can be found at the Hooge Crater Cemetery at West Vlaanderen, Belgium.  

 

[1] Western Times. November 16th 1917. ‘News of the West’.

[2] North Devon Journal.November 15th 1917. ‘North Devon War Items’.