William Henry Camden was the older brother of Thomas Camppden who also died in the war.
Thomas has his own page on this website. Follow the link to read his story. Both William Campden (and his brother) are named on the Hawarden Memorial as well as the Connah’s Quay/Shotton memorial.
William was recorded on the 1901 census aged 5. He was living at 27 Brook Road Shotton with the rest of his family which comprised his father William Campden aged 30 a sheet iron roller (pudd), who had been born in Smethwick Staffordshire. His mother was Harriet E Campden 28 and she had been born in Moxley in Staffordshire which is where the three children had been born. They were William H 7, Thomas 5 and Dorothy N 4.
Ten years later in the 1911 census the family was living at 53 Brook Road, Shotton. The family had grown somewhat. The father William Henry was then 40 and still an ironworker. His wife of 18 years was Harriet Eliza aged 38. William H was 17 and Thomas 15 were both ironworkers. Dorothy Nellie was 14. A further four children had been born in Shotton. Florence Eileen was 8, Emily Gwen 6, Annie 3 and Laura Harriet was 1. There was also a lodger named Abraham Freeth a 24 year old ironworker who hailed from Moxley, who was to lose his life on the 18th April 1916 in the Balkans, please click on his name to see his page on this memorial.
UK soldiers who died n the Great War 1914-19 accessible on www.ancestry.co.uk gives us William’s regimental details as above and tells us that he enlisted in Shotton and that he ‘died of wounds’
It is William’s medal card that gives us the information that he was formerly in the Army Cyclists Corps.it also tells us that his first Theatre of War was France and that he entered it on 17th July 1915.
William Campden in the UK, Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929 tells us that the sole Legatee was his mother Harriet E. Campden who was paid £5. 0s 0d on the 4th July 1917 and his War Gratuity of £12. 0s 0d on the 17th October 1919. Within 4 months poor Harriet was to lose anther son Thomas,
He has a card in the Flintshire Roll of Honour at the County Archive Office in Hawarden. It was completed and signed by his mother, Mrs H Campden, who signed both her son’s cards on the 4th January 1921 and lived at 53 Brook Road, Shotton. It says he served for 3 years.
William is mentioned in the book ” Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914 – 1919 Royal Welsh Fusiliers Volume 28″.
William is listed on the Hawarden War Memorial and he and his brother Thomas. Campden are also mentioned on the Memorial Screen in St. Ethelwold’s Church, Shotton. Please click on the link to see Thomas Campden’s story.