Wilfred Walker GREAVES

92907, Airman 3rd Class. b. 1886, Halifax d. Mon. 31st December 1917 (aged 31)

Wilfred is shown as being born in Halifax. The family must have moved as in 1891 Wilfred is shown as a 4 year old living on Brecks in Clayton. The 1901 census shows Wilfred as a ‘Farmers Son’ and living at Paradise Farm. His father, William Greaves is shown as Head of the family and is aged 61 and his wife Emily is 57. George the eldest boy is 25 and Wilfred his younger brother is 14.

By the 1911 census the family were living at White Acre Farm. Wilfreds father William had died, leaving Emily to run the farm with Wilfred who is listed as being aged 24. His elder brother George has moved out of the family home and is living with an uncle and aunt in Allerton and is working as a confectioners vanman. Wilfred is now 24 and shown as working on the farm.

Wilfred married Ethel Mary Ward on July 12th 1916. The couple settled at 51, Heap Lane, Tennyson Place, Otley Road until William was conscripted into the forces in 1916 and chose to join the relatively new Royal Flying Corps (it did not become the R.A.F. until 1918).

Wilfred was enlisted on 30th August 1917 for training and was sent out to the Middle East on Troop Ship HMS/HMT Osmanieh. He left Southampton on 17th December 1917 for Alexandria in Egypt with a stopover in the southern Italian port city of Taranto.

The port of Taranto was reached on 28th December and the ship was outside of Alexandria harbour by 31st December. Before reaching the harbour entrance, the steamer struck a naval mine amidships on the starboard side, one of a minefield left a few days earlier by the German submarine SM UC-34.

The mine caused fatal damage and HMS Osmanieh sank quickly, in just five to seven minutes, killing 209 people, including Lt. Commander Mason, two ship officers, 21 crew members, a Royal Navy officer, 166 other ranks and the eight nurses of Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS)

From Airmen who Died 1914-1918. The Roll of Honour of the British and Commonwealth Air Services records that 48 Royal Flying Corps men died in the sinking, including Wilfred. The men were mainly from Nos 55 and 56 Kite Balloon Sections. It is possible that Wilfred was attached to one of these units and drowned in the sinking of the ship.

His widow, Ethel received £7 12s 2d and a war gratuity of £3. Wilfred is buried at ALEXANDRIA (HADRA) WAR MEMORIAL CEMETERY, Egypt.

The headstone on his father Williams grave at Scholemoor Cemetery , Bradford bears this inscription:

‘PTE ALFRED WALKER GREAVES, R.F.C. YOUNGEST AND DEARLY BELOVED SON OF THE ABOVE WHO WAS DROWNED AT SEA IN HIS 32ND YEAR. INTERRED IN HADRA NEW MILITARY CEMETERY, ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT. JANUARY 1ST 1918.’

HMS Osmanieh (1906) – Wikipedia

His wife Ethel died in 1923 and her probate records her address as 37 Ripon Street. The street her father had a butchers shop when she was growing up. Ethel and Wilfred had no children.

Wilfreds elder brother George was too old to fight in the 1st world war. He married Mary Bradley in January 1918 died in 1928 aged 54.