DRUMMER WILLIAM MARK NORTHCOTT
LONDON REGIMENT
30TH AUGUST 1917 AGE 23
BURIED: LIJSSENTHOEK MILITARY CEMETERY, BELGIUM
In the 1911 census, William Northcott was an errand boy living at home with his parents and two of his younger brothers. In August 1917 he was serving with the 24th Battalion London Regiment where he held the rank of Drummer. As a bandsman he would have been used in action either as a messenger or as a stretcher bearer. He died of wounds, "gunshot wounds chest penetrating, on left thigh, fractured femur" at No. 3 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station, Lijssenthoek on 30 August 1917.
His mother, Mary Anne Northcott, chose his inscription. Her use of the word 'glorious' is interesting. In November 1920 the cenotaph, the Empire's memorial to its dead, was unveiled in Whitehall: a spare, understated monument, heavy with emotion but carrying only a few brief words - The Glorious Dead MCMXIV - MCMXVIII. Glorious - deserving of admiration, worthy of fame, honoured, a word appropriate to describe all the dead, which included Mrs Northcott's son - 'Our Bill'.