One of the graves in Contalmaison Château Cemetery is Private William Henry Short V.C., ‘C’ Company, 8th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiments, the Green Howards who died of wounds August 7, 1916 aged 31.
William Henry Short was born to James Short and Annie Stephenson - they did not marry until 1888 - of 11, William Street, Eston, Middlesbrough, Yorkshire on 4th February 1885. There were five sons and four daughters.
The Short family moved to 35 Vaughan Street Grangetown near Middlesbrough in 1900.
Known by his family as Will, William Short was a popular local footballer playing for Grangetown Albion and Saltburn and Lazenby United Football Clubs.
William Short was sometimes called 'Twig' or 'Twiggie' by his friends, since he always seen walking around with a twig in his mouth.
At the age of 16 years, William Short worked as a craneman at Bolckow, Vaughan & Co Steelworks in Eston until the start of the Great War.
William Short enlisted on 2nd September 1914 into the Green Howards, and travelled to France on 26 August 1915 with 'C' Company, 8th Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment.
William Short fought in the early stages of the battle of the Somme around Contalmaison on 5th and 10th July.
12067 Private William Short won his VC at Munster Alley near Pozières on 6 August 1916.
He died of wounds the next day and his body was eventually buried in Contalmaison Chateaux Cemetery Plot II, Row B Grave 16, some four miles to the north east of Albert.
William Short’s name is recorded on the Grangetown war memorial and the obelisk in Eston Cemetery.
William Short's medals were sold to the Regiment by his youngest and only surviving brother in April 1979. The VC and medals are held by the Green Howards Regimental Museum in Richmond.
An extract from ‘The London Gazette’ dated 8 September 1916 records the following:
“For most conspicuous bravery. He was foremost in the attack, bombing the enemy with great gallantry, when he was severely wounded in the foot. He was urged to go back, but refused and continued to throw bombs. Later his leg was shattered by a shell, and he was unable to stand, so he lay in the trench adjusting detonators and straightening the pins of bombs for his comrades. He died before he could be carried out of the trench. For the last eleven months he had always volunteered for dangerous enterprises, and has always set a magnificent example of bravery and devotion to duty”.
