10.5287/BODLEIANDT5W.1
First World War Poetry Digital Archive, University Of Oxford
University Of Oxford
First World War Poetry Digital Archive
Photographs and Documents relating to William Simper, erroneously listed dead
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
2011
Dataset
nsJvlaZm85362
1918-03-01/1920-12-31
2011-12-04 20:52:13.698111
2011
gwa-9290
Multiple
Lance Corporal 41829 William Alfred George Simper, 10th Bn. Essex Regiment:
Initially his parents were informed that he had died, but then were told of his whereabouts: in Hospital Auxiliare 101 in Rennes, France. He was wounded in the thigh and buttock by shrapnel, believed caused by French artillery, and was nursed in a French convent by nuns.
About 40 years later the quality of the 1918 french surgery was highly praised in a British hospital. Bill Simper went on to have a family of his own, serve as a surveyor with the Civil Defence in WW2 and ultimately died in September 1975, some 57 years after the first announcement of his death.
Also some Christmas cards from his two brothers, Bert and Harold, both serving with the 6th Division.