In Memory of Bill Johnson
i THINK we owe it to the memory of Bill Johnson to make sure his achievements and memory are properly recorded.
First may I say that the plaque stolen from the memorial gardens was not a memorial. It is the tree which grows behind the plaque which is the memorial having been planted by the council chairman Coun Peter Mace in June 1991. It took until December 2007 for the plaque to be put in place.
As a family man with a wife and three children, Bill was not one of those who volunteered at the outbreak of war but was conscripted in February 1916. By the Autumn of 1918, Bill was serving as Sergeant in the 1/5th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters being part of the 46th North Midlands Division, the first to break into the formidable German defence the Hindenburg Line.
The history of the division records, ‘Immediately in front of the Fonsomme Line, more stiff fighting was experienced. Here enemy machine gun sections were dug in isolated gun pits which were very difficult to deal with. It was in the attack on such posts that Sergeant W. H. Johnson of the 1/5th Sherwoods well earned the Victoria Cross which was later bestowed on him. This NCO when his platoon was held up by such a nest of enemy machine guns worked his way forward single handed under heavy rifle and machine gun fire and charged the post, bayoneting several gunners and capturing two machine guns which had been delaying the advance. During the attack he was severely wounded by a bomb, but nevertheless continued to lead his men forward until, a similar situation occurring, he again rushed forward and attacked the post. This time, taking a leaf out of the enemy’s books, he made the attack with bombs and putting both guns out of action, captured the crews, thus enabling the troops to advance and preventing them from falling dangerously far behind the barrage’. This action took place on the 3rd October 1918.
Bill Johnson was so badly injured he could not return to work as a miner, although he did work for some time as a check weighman. He then undertook several occupations including that of the landlord of the Mason’s Arms in Retford before moving to Nottingham to become a club steward and then an employee of John Player and Sons. Bill died of a seizure in 1945, aged 54. He was buried with full military honours at Redhill Cemetery, Nottingham and is the only Worksop man mentioned in the Official History Of The Great War.
robert Ilett
Local Memorials Representative
The Western Front Association
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