William Edgar Crane was born in Holbeach, Lincolnshire in 1882. In 1905 he married Lilly Calladine in Ilkeston. At about that time he started working as a baker at Bexon’s Bakery on Draycott Road in Sawley. By 1911 they were living at 93 Church/Town Street.
In Nov 1915 he signed up for the Sherwood Foresters Regiment at Ilkeston but wasn’t mobilized until Oct 1916. He was already 34 years old and after only a couple of months he was promoted to (unpaid) lance corporal, becoming a full (paid) L/Cpl in May 1917. In Oct 1917 he joined the Sherwood Foresters’ 11th (Men from Greenwood) Battalion in France. A month later they were moved to Italy, via a 5-day train journey and then a long march to the front line in the foothills of the alps, north of Padua. Italy, which was allied with the British and French, had just suffered a major defeat at Caporetto and the Austro-Hungarian/German forces were threatening Venice.
In March 1918 11th Sherwood Foresters moved to the Asiago Plateau. April and May were quiet, but many men were ill with ‘mountain fever’ – a type of flu. In early June they learnt from Austrian prisoners that an attack was imminent. It finally came on 15th June, with an artillery barrage starting at 3am and chlorine gas clouds. The Austrian infantry attack came after dawn. Their officers were riding horses and many of the Austrians were shot by the forward line of Sherwood Foresters. The Austrians gained a foothold for a while but were then defeated and 156 of them were captured. Most of the British losses were from the Austrian artillery. The battalion lost 8 men killed, 44 wounded (including the Lt. Colonel) and 4 missing.
L/Cpl Crane was wounded in the battle and evacuated to a casualty clearing station in the village school at Dueville, 20km behind the lines. But he died of his wounds and was buried at Dueville Communal Cemetery Extension.
After the war, Lilly was awarded a widow’s pension of 25/5 a week. She remained in Town Street until her death in 1936. William and Lily had two sons:
Phillip Crane (1906-1979) became a clerk with the Midland Railway in Derby. In 1940 he married Irene Earnshaw in Long Eaton. She worked as a receptionist at the ARP (Air Raid Precaution) centre. ARP wardens provided an honour guard at the wedding. They moved to 32 Grosvenor Ave, Sawley.
Jack Leonard Crane (1911-1972) joined the Royal Navy as a stoker. When he married in 1937, he was living in Portsmouth, where he stayed after WW2.