WILLIAM INNS

Lance Corporal William Inns had been born in Widnes, Lancashire in 1892. He had worked as a labourer at the Belfast Freezing Works and enlisted in June 1915. He arrived in Egypt at the conclusion of the Gallipoli campaign and had then been sent with the rest of the Division to France. As the Division expanded, there was a growing need for non-commissioned officers and he was promoted to Lance Corporal on 27 May 1916. He was killed in action during the battle of Flers-Courcellette on 21 September 1916. His body was never found, and evidence from one of his section at a Court of Enquiry held in March 1917 gives some insight into the nature of the battle:

"On 21 st September during the advance I saw Lance Corporal Inns on the side of the German wire. He was then unwounded and advancing. The next day he was missing and I searched for him on the ground that we had crossed but found no trace of him. I have not seen him since.”

He is commemorated on the New Zealand memorial to the Missing at Caterpillar Valley on the Somme, and on his family's headstone in the Belfast Cemetery.

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