William Absalom Lock

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Grave/Memorial:  		Lock, William A

4 October 1895, Manor Park, Essex

William and Lydia (née Absalom)

6th Battalion, The (Duke of Edinburgh’s) Wiltshire Regiment

N/A

Lieutenant

25 September 1915, France, age 20

Browns Road Military Cemetery, Festubert, Nord-Pas-de-Calais,
France: I. F. 6. 		   

Biography:
William Absalom Lock was born, on 4 October 1895, in Manor Park, Essex. He was the eldest son of William Henry, a manager
and secretary to a limited company, and Lydia (née Absalom). He had a brother and two sisters.

William was educated at Edgeborough School, Guildford and at Marlborough College. He had obtained a place at Cambridge but,
when war broke out, took a commission and joined the Wiltshire Regiment.

The 6th (Service) Battalion, The (Duke of Edinburgh’s) Wiltshire Regiment embarked for France in July 1915 as part of the 19th
Division. They initially were introduced to trench warfare in the Laventie and Festubert area with their first attack taking place at
Loos in September.

William Absalom Lock was killed on 25 September 1915. He is buried in grave I. F. 6 within Browns Road Military Cemetery,
Festubert, France.

     


Festubert was occupied by Commonwealth forces in October 1914. Following the Battle of Festubert (15-25 May 1915), this sector remained quiet until
9 April 1918.

The cemetery, designed by Charles Holden, was begun in October 1914, and carried on by fighting units and field ambulances until November 1917, when it
contained 299 graves. It was greatly enlarged after the Armistice when graves were brought in from small cemeteries and isolated sites on the surrounding
battlefields.

Brown's Road Cemetery now contains 1,071 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 407 of the burials are unidentified but special memorials
commemorate three casualties believed to be buried among them.