People on board

TILL, William

William Till was born in Bayswater, London in 1894 to John Till and Mary Ann Trayhorn, the youngest of their six children. John Till gave his occupation as ‘Horse Keeper’; in the 1881 census he, two of his brothers and their father all gave their occupations as ‘Stableman’. His family were then living in Lionel Mews in Kensington, in 1891 John was living with his wife and children in Wellington Mews and in 1901 in Ledbury Mews, all in Kensington.

John and Mary Ann have not been found in the 1911 census, though neither have their deaths been identified. Sixteen year old William was then an ‘Order Boy Grocer’ and living with his eldest sister Annie and her husband George Shute and their child. Also in that household was seventy-six year old Maria Till, William’s grandmother. In August 1915 William Till married Lilian May Mary Stapleton in Battersea, when he gave his occupation as ‘Porter’. They had two children, William Thomas and Lily May Mary, who died shortly after birth in January 1918.

It is not known when William Till enlisted at Mill Hill in London in the Yorkshire Hussars Yeomanry. In October 1918 he was with the 2/1st Regiment, a training and draft supplying reserve, which had moved to Ireland in May of that year. Whether returning home on leave or for deployment, he travelled on RMS Leinster on the 10th. He did not survive the sinking, nor was his body recovered. His name is recorded on the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton.