William James Nelson Loder was born in the summer of 1893 in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. The oldest of seven children, his parents were Harry and Rosina. Harry was an engineer at a wool mill, and his son obviously followed in his father’s practical footsteps: the 1911 census found him employed as a coach builder’s apprentice.

The document found the Loder family living at 1 Canal Road, a five-roomed cottage on the outskirts of town. Alongside Harry and his son, William’s younger sister, Ethel was also working as an apprentice dress maker.

Away from work, it seems that William also joined the local militia, with a later document showing that he enlisted in the Wiltshire Regiment on 4th February 1909. When war broke out, he was called upon to play his part. He was assigned to the 4th Battalion, and was sent to India in September 1914. While his service papers have been lost to time, it is clear that he rose to the rank of Serjeant, but by the start of 1917, he was back in Britain.

On 27th January 1917, William married Angelin Gliddon. She was a coachman’s daughter from Holt, Wiltshire, and was working as a draper’s assistant when she and her husband exchanged vows.

William’s health was failing by this point and, on 21st May 1917, he was formally discharged from the army on medical grounds. His trail goes cold as this point, and it is only three years later that documents confirm his passing. He died on 24th April 1920 at the age of 26 years old.

The body of William James Nelson Loder was laid to rest in Holt Old Cemetery, not far from where his grieving wife still lived.

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