Biography:

FENTON, WILLIAM VERNON
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Second Lieutenant
Regiment/Service: Yorkshire Regiment
Unit Text: 8th Bn.
Age: 21
Date of Death: 16/09/1915
Additional information: Eldest son of Mr. W. H. Fenton, J.P., and E. M. Fenton, of Heston House, Heston, Middx.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: I. 6.
Cemetery: BOIS-GRENIER COMMUNAL CEMETERY


William Fenton was born in Sunbury on Thames on March 19th 1894 and was
educated at Cranleigh School. At the onset of war he joined the Universities and Public Schools Corps and was gazetted on February 8th 1915.
His war was very short, arriving with the 8th battalion on August 27th 1915, early
September found them in Erquinghem where platoons were sent into the line for
instruction and training.
It was during one of these exercises that 2nd Lt Fenton was wounded and taken to a
Casualty Clearing Station where he died of his injuries on September 16th 1915 aged
just 21. He was the first officer casualty of the 8th battalion.
His grave today lies in Bois Grenier Communal Cemetery one and a half miles south
of Armentieres.
2nd Lt William Vernon Fenton was the eldest son of Mr William Henry Fenton JP and
Mrs Edith Mary Fenton of Heston House near Hounslow in Middlesex.
Captain Dodgson listed earlier wrote to his mother in October 1915,
“A shell burst just behind the trench and caught poor Fenton who was walking from
one dugout to the next. He was badly wounded in the head and died that night