Bombardier William John Collis
33rd Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery
20/11/1917

1914 Star

 

NEWS ITEM in Jersey Evening Post of Monday 26 November 1917

Roll of Honour - Bombardier W J Collis Killed While Succouring the Wounded. We regret to state that Mrs Collis of Delafield House, First Tower yesterday received news that her husband, Bombardier William John Collis of the Royal Garrison Artillery, had been killed in action. This soldier will be remembered as a former gunner of the 20th Company Royal Garrison Artillery and a prominent member of the football team and was held in the highest respect locally. No higher tribute could have been paid than that of the officer of the Battery who writes to the widow as follows "I, together with your husband and one other Signaller, were proceeding to an Observation Post when we saw two infantry men badly wounded lying on the ground in an exposed position. We at once went to their assistance and it was whilst your husband was lifting a flask from my haversack that a sniper shot him in the head. His death was painless and absolutely instantaneous. Bombardier Collis was a man of my Section and his death has been a great blow to me, absolutely fearless and thoroughly competent and reliable I had chosen him to accompany me because of my implicit confidence in him. By his death the Battery has lost one of its best Signallers. Please accept from myself and brother officers our sincerest sympathy in your bereavement". The late Bombardier was in his 32nd year and had been some 2 years in France, he came from a military family and was born in India, his father is still serving with the Colours. We tender the widow our sincere sympathy.