William Charles Long

War Service

William Charles initially joined the King’s Own Yorkshire Light infantry as Private 15564, however on 7 September he was transferred to the newly formed Hawke Battalion, Royal Naval Division, with the rank of able seaman. Eight battalions were raised from volunteers surplus to the naval requirements and volunteers of other light infantry battalions.
Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914 after the German invasion of Belgium and so started WW1. Initially the German First Army bypassed the city of Antwerp but after a few weeks, the German artillery batteries began to shell the outer forts. By the beginning of October, the German infantry were slowly closing in on the city of Antwerp. Two British naval brigades, including William’s battalion, arrived in Antwerp early on 6 October to assist the Belgium forces defend the city, on what had become a critical situation against an overwhelming force. German forces began to shell the streets and houses of the city of Antwerp, defended by mixed units of Belgium and British troops. Following heavy shelling the first German troops entered the city on 9 October and the siege was at an end.
Able Seaman William Charles Long was declared “missing – assumed killed in action” on 7 October 1914, only one month after his transfer to the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, Hawke Battalion.
William’s wife Beatrice received the tragic news of his death at their home in Church Road, Altofts. William and Beatrice had been married for approximately five years.
William Charles Long is one of the 566 Commonwealth officers and men killed during the allied operations on the Belgium coast during the First World War and commemorated on the Nieuport Memorial.
Twenty of those commemorated served with the Royal Navy Division (the Division in which William served) and were killed or mortally wounded during the siege of Antwerp in October 1914.
William Charles Long was the first casualty of the war from the Altofts area and named on the Altofts Cenotaph, mistakenly listed as “Long, C. W.”.

Family Life

William Charles was born on 30 May 1881 in the St Albans area of Hertfordshire. In the autumn of 1909, William Long married Beatrice Ellen Collins, who also came from the same area in Hertfordshire.
Just over a year after their marriage in Hertfordshire the couple moved to live in Normanton at number 6, Railway Terrace. The properties in Railway Terrace were built to house people employed by the railway. In 1911 William was a railway porter, presumably working at Normanton railway station. William and his wife Beatrice had moved home again to live at 161, Church Road, Altofts by the time William enlisted on 30 August 1914, less than a month after the declaration of war.