Private Rifleman R/17219, King's Royal Rifle Corps & Private B/203034, Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort’s Own) 1st/8th London Regiment. Died 14th October 1918. Elias Williams was born in Helmington Row, near Crook, on the 1st November, 1894. The family moved several times before settling in Valley Terrace in Howden-Le-Wear. When the war started Elias was only 19 years old. He enlisted at Spennymoor into the King's Royal Rifle Corps and later transferred to the Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort’s Own) 1st/8th London Regiment. The King's Royal Rifle Corps’ sixteen battalions were continuously in action from 1914, when the first shots were fired at Mons, until November 1918. Most of the fighting was on the Western Front. On the 14th October 1918, less than a month before the Armistice ceasefire, Elias Williams, aged 23 years, was reported killed in action in Flanders. His body was never recovered. Elias is commemorated in the Lievin Communal Cemetery Extension in France and also on the Howden-le-Wear War. Memorial.

Elias Williams