William Otterson
William Otterson was born into an English coal miner's family in 1916, in the middle of the First World War while his father was serving in the British Army. The seventh of eight children, he was not quite 10 months old when his father was wounded in the long and bloody Battle of the Somme in France. Later, he would follow his father's footsteps in the crucial stages of World War 2, when he was part of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France.
Will, as he was known, served with distinction. Like his father, he also suffered a head injury while in the Army, and although he soon returned to active service, the wound may have been a factor in his premature death from a brain hemorrhage a dozen years after the war ended.
William Otterson (1916 - 1957)
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Born Sunderland, Durham, England -
Died Newcastle, Tyneside, England -
Married 1940 in Sunderland to Doris Hill
Doris Hill (1921 - 1993)
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Born Sunderland, Durham, England -
Died Cleveland, England -
Three children
THE OTTERSON BROTHERS all attended the colliery school in Sunderland, not far from where their father worked at the Monkwearmouth coal mine. All four of the boys were active in sports and scouting in their teens. For Will, it was cycling, running and boxing that kept him active as a member of the youth club and to the scout troop attached to the Williamson Terrace Methodist Church. With his younger brother, James, he undertook scout leader training at the Brancepeth Camp Training Center and progressed to become a district leader. His first job was as a trainee colliery surveyor, but he soon moved on to work for the Refuge Assurance Company.
Will met his future bride, Doris Hill, at the Primitive Methodist Church in Sunderland, before war broke out in September of 1939. He was working as an insurance agent when he was conscripted into the Royal Artillery. The couple was keen to get married before he had to depart for active service, but her father was hesitant. While he liked Will, his daughter was still 18 years old. Still, on 2 March 1940, they were married and within days Will left for war.
There was a practical side to that decision. His new bride would now receive a married woman's allowance from the Army, and in addition she was able to take over her husband's job with the insurance company.
In the early years of the war, Will was assigned to the Royal Artillery 322nd Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment in the defense of England. Five months after he was conscripted, he was promoted to lance bombardier, and in 1941 to bombardier. In September of that year he was sent on a series of specialized training courses as lance sergeant, and in January 1942 received his sergeant's stripes. Meanwhile, bombs had been falling on England. His son, David, remembers the ceiling of their home at 29 Wreath Quay Road partly collapsing in a bombing raid.
In the late summer of 1943, Will received a serious head injury and spent two weeks in a military hospital. But cleared for duty, he was ready to move with his regiment for the Normany landings on D-Day in June 1944.
Will was awarded two campaign medals, and received a certificate of commendation signed by General Montgomery.
After the war, Will served for a number of years with the Territorial Army Z Reserve, attending two weeks training courses each year at Aberystwyth in Wales. He was finally discharged from the army in 1956 with the rank of Warrant Sergeant.
His three children remember some happy years between the war and Will's untimely death in 1957 - family walks and picnics along the banks of the River Lune, shooting rabbits in the early morning with a farmer's shotgun, riding on the high moor on shire horses, and days spent haymaking (see video).
Around 1955, Will began to experience headaches and temporary blackouts. He became progressively ill and bed-bound, heavily sedated. Eventually, he was operated on for a brain bleed - pioneering treatment at the time. After a long convalescence he recovered briefly and returned to work, but the condition soon returned. He died in a Newcastle hospital on 25 June 1957, age 41.
Will's wife, Doris, remained single for the next nine years and worked hard raising her two sons and daughter. In 1966 she remarried to Fred Lowe and remained his companion until his death from a stroke at the age of 64. Doris lived until the age of 71, and died from cancer in Cleveland in 1993.