William John Gill

(Note: William Gill and Arthur Searle served together in the same regiment(s).  Their regimental numbers are very close, suggesting that they enlisted together and so at least knew each other and were perhaps friends.  They were both killed in the same action)

William John Gill was born in Probus in 1890.  His parents were William James and Elizabeth Jane Gill.  His father William was a groom which meant he looked after horses, possibly for his own father James who was a horse trainer.  In 1891 when only 1 year old, William is living with his parents at ‘Tresorns,’ Probus.  Thereafter he seems to have lived for the most part with his grandfather, certainly from the age of 11 at Church Lane.  At the age of 21, he is still living with his horse trainer grandfather and his aunt Elizabeth, and is now a horse trainer himself.  They are living at ‘Vine Cottage,’ while his parents and siblings are living at ‘The Manor House.’ 

Being bought up around horses and being a horse trainer himself, it was logical that when William enlisted, and he did so fairly early in the war, he enlisted into a cavalry unit.  It was also a fateful decision when he enlisted into the Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry.  

The Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry

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The regiment had a long tradition as it was formed in the 1790s.  William must have been with the regiment from before it left these shores.  Mobilized in August 1914, it moved to Colchester and became a dismounted unit, which must have been a disappointment for William.  It had been found, that is this new highly mechanized form of warfare a body of mounted horsemen were no match for artillery and machine guns.  So William was to fight as an infantryman.  He embarked with his regiment on RMS Olympic at Liverpool on 23rd September 1915, arriving at Moudros, Greece on 1st October.  They then went on to Suvla Bay and the Gallipoli Peninsula, arriving on the 9th.  This campaign had begun in April and had made little progress against the Turks, and was in fact failing. William with his regiment was at first employed digging trenches, but by November was in the firing line only to be evacuated to Imbros in December when this disastrous campaign was abandoned. On the 30th December the regiment landed at Alexandria to defend Egypt along the line of the vital Suez Canal. The regiment became part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (E.E.F.)

In January 1917, William’s regiment was amalgamated with the Royal North Devon Yeomanry, to become the 16th Battalion Devonshire Regiment. As such, it took part in the 2nd & 3rd Battles of Gaza, including the capture of Beersheba.  At the end of 1917, it was present at the capture of Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks.

The Battle of Jerusalem or the ‘Jerusalem Operations’ Nov-Dec 1917

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This campaign developed from about the 17th November 1917 up until the end of December.  It was fought in Sinai, Palestine and in the Judean Hills.  Before Jerusalem was captured, two major battles were fought together with some minor actions.  Empire forces were opposed with fierce resistance from the Ottoman Seventh Army and Eight Army near Jaffa.  The British forces were led by the C-in-C of the E.E.F., General Edmund Allenby. 

The fight for Jerusalem was nearing its end when William’s regiment attacked and temporarily recaptured Beit Ur el Foqa.  The attack began at 1am on the morning of the 3rd December.  In two and a half hours of fighting the village was captured along with 17 prisoners, and three machine guns.  The victory was short lived.  The Turks had positions on high ground that overlooked Beit Ur el Foqa, and so it was always going to be impossible to hold.  Bombing, counter bombing and hand to hand fighting went on long into the daylight hours until the 16th Devons were forced out.  They had taken approximately 300 casualties.  Acting Corporal William Gill, who must have been quite a veteran after Gallipoli and the operations in Palestine, was mortally wounded in this fight. He died from these wounds on the following day. 

Only a few days later, Jerusalem was surrendered to General Allenby’s forces. The Turk’s formal declaration of surrender ran as follows: “Due to the severity of the siege of the city and the suffering that this peaceful country has endured from your heavy guns; and for fear that these deadly bombs will hit the holy places, we are forced to hand over to you through Hussein al Husseini, the mayor of Jerusalem, hoping that you will protect Jerusalem the way we have protected it for more than five hundred years.”  It was signed by Izzat, the Mutasarrif of Jerusalem.  

On 11th December 1917, out of respect for this town so sacred to many faiths, General Allenby entered the city through the Jaffa Gate, on foot. The Turks had lost Jerusalem and Jaffa along with 50 miles of territory.  It was a great setback for the Ottoman Army and the Ottoman Empire as a whole.  David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, described it as a “Christmas present” for the British people, while Allenby declared that “the wars of the crusaders are now complete.” By September 1918 Allenby had taken Damascus and Aleppo.  With these considerable territorial gains he had helped secure Baghdad and the oilfields around Basra in Mesopotamia, now Iraq.  He had encouraged the Arab Revolt against the Turks, and inflicted losses on the Ottoman army that could not be recovered.  One hundred years on, we are still living with the repercussions that this campaign set in motion. 

William is buried in the Ramleh War Cemetery, Israel & Palestine.  There are 3,888 casualties of war buried here.  His personal effects were released to his grandfather James and his aunt Elizabeth, on year later.      

Researched and written by Stephen Jackson​