William Lawson was born in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire in 1882, the seventh of eight children of James Lawson and his wife Ann Ashworth who married in the Burnley registration district in 1872.
Ann was born in Huncoat, near Accrington in 1849 and their first child, Joshua, was born in Huncoat in 1874. They then moved to Oswaldtwistle where their other seven children were born: Alice Ann (1876), Adam (1877), Joseph (1879) Sarah Jane (1880), James (1881), William (1882) and Betsey (1884).
In the Census taken on 3 April 1884, the Lawsons were recorded at Cockerly Fold, Oswaldtwistle and James was a farmer of 24 acres. By 5 April 1891 the family had moved to 184 New Lane, Oswaldtwistle. The three eldest children had left school to become cotton weavers. Sarah Jane and Betsey would also follow the same trade by the time of the 1901 Census when the family lived at 10 Monk Street, Accrington. William became a butcher's assistant.
William attested at Blackburn as a reservist in the Grenadier Guards on 20 February 1902. He was transferred to the Coldstream Guards the following day.
William was the only one of his immediate family to move to our area. In the Census taken on 2 April 1911 he was a boarder at 32 Heys Street, Thornton and worked at the Salt Works as a drawer. Also boarding at the same address was widower Arthur Catlow Howarth. Arthur was also from Oswaldtwistle and had been working as a chemical labourer for at least ten years. He may have been related by marriage to William's sister Sarah Jane (who married Nathan Howarth in 1902) and perhaps influenced William's change of career.
William married Henrietta Cornall at All Saints, Palatine Road, Blackpool on 26 April 1911. Henrietta was born in Blackpool in 1881, the youngest of three children of Robert Cornall, a fisherman, and his wife Elizabeth Lightfoot who married on 4 December 1854 at All Hallows, Bispham. William and Henrietta made their home at Holmes Road, Thornton.
On the outbreak of war, William was activated with the 3rd Battalion of the Coldtream Guards. He arrived in France on 26 August 1914. His war was a brief one as he was killed in action at Reutel, near Ypres on 6 November. William was aged 33.
Pte. William Lawson, 4590, 3rd Battalion, Coldstream Guards is buried in Plot 2, Row B, Grave 10 at Ypres Town Cemetery Extension, Ypres, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Henrietta never remarried and lived in Blackpool until her death in 1952.
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