William Daniel Yandell was born in 1884 in Bishops Lydeard, Somerset. The second of four children, his parents were Samuel and Jane Yandell. Samuel was a farm labourer, and this is work that William and his younger brothers, wins Sam and Walter, also went into.
The 1911 census found William living with Walter, who had found employment as a labourer at Cotford Asylum, not far from the village. The brothers also had a boarder, Samuel Chaffey, a carter, who brought in some more money to the household. Samuel Sr and Jane were all that remained in the family home. Samuel Jr had married three years before, and was living in a small cottage with his wife, Rosina, and their two children. The oldest of the Yandell siblings, Alice, had been married for ten years by the time of the census, and was living with her husband and son in Minehead.
Samuel Sr died in the spring of 1914. By the summer, war had been declared, and the three Yandell brother enlisted to serve their king and heir country.
William, by this point, had found work at the Goodlands Coal Yard and volunteered for the local fire brigade. He did not enlist immediately but joined the Royal Fusiliers in the spring of 1916. Attached to the 3rd Battalion, Private Yandell found himself in France that summer.
On 1st October 1916, he was badly wounded in the right arm and shoulder, and was medically evacuated to the 2nd Western General Hospital in Manchester for treatment. This proved to be long-term support, and on 21st January 1917, he underwent an operation on the injury. Private Yandell was not to come round from the surgery: he passed away the following day at the age of 33 years of age.
William Daniel Yandell was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St Mary’s Church in his home village of Bishops Lydeard.
The deepest sympathy is felt for [William’s] widowed mother and relatives, as the widow has another son a prisoner of war in Turkey, who was taken with General Townshend’s force at Kut, and no news has been heard since they were taken prisoner. Another son is somewhere in Salonica, from whom no news has been heard for some weeks past.
Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser: Wednesday 31st January 1917
Walter was the son being held in Turkey. He had joined the Somerset Light Infantry as a Private, and was assigned to the 1st/5th Battalion. His troop was caught up in the Siege of Kut in the spring of 1916. He died on 31st May 1916, soon after being taken prisoner, a fact his mother would not be made away of for at least nine months, based on the newspaper report. Private Walter Yandell is commemorated on the Basra Memorial in Iraq.
Sam Jr was the son who was based in Salonika. Full details of his military service are not available, but later records confirm that he survived the war. By the time of the 1939 England and Wales Register, he was living back in Bishops Lydeard with Rosina, and was working as a Mess Orderly at a military camp. Sam died in January 1951, at the age of 63.
Death and Service 