Willie Williamson
The soldier:
Willie Williamson enlisted into the army in Norwich, Norfolk. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment and given regimental number 29065.
He was ‘killed in action’ on Sunday, 9th September, 1917 at the age of 30.
He is buried in Grave II D.4 at the Oostttaverne Wood Cemetery, Wytschaete, Heuvelland, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.
His name is inscribed on both Snettisham’s war memorials and its ‘Roll of Honour’.
Military records record that Private 29065 Willie Williamson of the Bedfordshire Regiment was born in and residing in Snettisham at the time of his enlistment.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission records, taken shortly after the war, show his mother to be Mrs. Lucy Frasy of East Lane, Ringstead, Kings Lynn.
The man:
William ‘Willie’ Williamson was born on the 25th August 1887 in Snettisham, Norfolk. His mother was Lucy Williamson, the daughter of Thomas and Sarah Williamson (Sarah having died on the 23rd December 1882 – leaving Thomas a widower). Lucy was only 19, single and living with her father and elder brother John at the time of William’s birth.
Lucy had also given birth to Sarah, Willie’s older sister on the 15th May 1885.
By the 1891 census, the extended family of Thomas, his children John and Lucy and the grandchildren; Sarah (now 5) and Willie (now 3) were living in Snettisham. Thomas’s occupation was recorded as a ‘farm labourer’.
Both Willie and his sister Sarah attended Snettisham School for their entire schooling (still existing as Snettisham’s Primary School). Willie started on the 1st June 1894 and left on the 22nd June 1900 to go out to work. On the contemporaneous school register, Sarah’s parent is listed as Lucy (her mother) but Willie’s parent is listed as Thomas (his grandfather).
By the 1901 census the Williamson family were living at an address in ‘Back Street’ Snettisham. Thomas was now 75, John 39, Lucy 34 and Willie 14. Both John and Willie were working as ‘farm labourers’.
Lucy, Willie’s mother had given birth to a daughter Hannah on the 15th August 1893. Hannah also went on to attend Snettisham School, the school registers recording her mother as ‘Lucy’.
By the 1911 census, Lucy (Willie’s mother) had married Frederick Fracy (also spelt Frasy) . Frederick, 50 and Lucy, 45 were living at ‘Bottom Farm’, Snettisham. Frederick’s occupation was listed as ‘Head teamster’.
Frederick and Lucy now had several children of their own living with them; Thomas Frasy bn. 28th December 1901, Frederick Frasy bn. 23rd April 1904 and Ethel Frasy bn. 10th October 1906. All these children would also go on to attend Snettisham School.
Willie Williamson was also living with them, now 24 and Sarah his older sibling had returned home, aged 26, Willie was recorded as ‘single’ and a ‘farm labourer’.
Tellingly, the school register shows both Frederick and Ethel Frasy as leaving the school early on the 15th October 1917, rather than competing their studies there, recording; ‘gone to Ringstead’. This date is just over one month after Willie’s death and ties in with the Commonwealth War Graves Register address for Lucy, Willie’s mother.
Hannah Williamson, Willie’s sister, at 18, had left home by the 1911 census and was working as a live in ‘domestic servant’ for the Watson family in Hunstanton. She later went on to marry Ernest Matsell in the spring of 1922 (the marriage being registered in Docking).
Military records of the day show that Private Willie Williamson’s personal effects went to his sole beneficiary, his mother ‘Lucy Frasy’.
It is currently unclear what happened to Lucy (Willie’s mother) or the Fracy’s/Frasy’s post the war due to the variations in the spelling of their surname corrupting search tools.
