William Blakley Tyers was nearly thirty when he joined the Army, most likely as a conscript in about February 1917. He was married with two young sons. William had been born in Measham were he had spent his infancy before his family moved to Ibstock in around 1890. One of five children, William was the oldest son of Walter and Mary Tyers. He was working as a grocer's assistant before the war and had married Eleanor Margaret Richardson in the late summer of 1912, the daughter of James Richardson, whose home and draper's shop was at 78 to 80 High Street, Ibstock. Their first child William G Tyers was born in the winter of 1914, and their second child John B Tyers around September 1916.

William Tyers service papers have not survived, but SDGW notes he was formerly private 37462 of the Leicester Regiment. Most of the men initially recruited to the Leicesters within the number range 37300 to 37700 were transferred to other Regiments, either before the completion of training in the UK or when posted to Infantry Base Depots in France. While there are insufficient records to show if a particular block of men where transferred from the Leicesters to the Northumberland Fusiliers, one other soldier, Private 36751Arthur Weston, was formerly 37501 of the Leicesters. Other groups were transferred to the DLI, Bedfords and Lincolns.

The following were all initially posted to the 3rd Leicesters on recruitment: Private 37308 Charles Stanley Mullany, enlisted 15.2.17, was discharged sick with a SWB on 10.8.17;Private 37338 Athur Harold Dunkley, attested Oct.16, mobilised 17 Feb. 1917; Private 37354 Ernest Jeffrey, attested 27.10.16, mobilised 17.Feb.1917; Private 37423 Sam Dixon, attested 19th Feb. 1916, sent to France 14/8/17; Private 37448 John Thomas Viccars, attested 18th Sept. 1916, mobilised 20th Feb. 1917; Private 37467 James Gee, enlisted 20th Feb. 1917, sent to France 28/7/1917 transferred to York & Lances; Private 37452 Charles Newberry, attested 20th Sept. 1916, mobilised 19th Feb 1917; Private 37578 Arthur Hazeldine, enlisted 22.2.17, was discharged sick with a SWB on 29.5.17; Private 37701 Cecil Catlin Arnsby, attested 8 Sept. 1916, mobilised 23 Feb.1917.

The most likely date for William Tyers conscription is 20th February 1917, and was probably sent to France sometime between late July and early September 1917 when he was transferred to the 25th Northumberland Fusiliers (2nd Tyneside Irish).

Back in 1914, those of Irish descent in Newcastle, Northumberland and Durham had answered the call for volunteers. The result was not merely the raising of one battalion, but the raising of four complete battalions with reserves, forming an entire Tyneside Irish Brigade. Officially the 24th to 27th Northumberland Fusiliers, they made up the 103rd Brigade of the 34th Division.

The brigade was to suffer some of the highest casualties on 1st July on the Somme, where they had advanced through a double barrage and fought their way to the enemy's third line and the outskirts of Contalmaison, where those remaining had met and bested elements of the Prussian Guard. The following Easter in 1917 at Arras, the Tyneside Irish Brigade once again attacked with heavy losses, and again a week later. In August 1917, because of the heavy casualties, the 24th and 27th Battalions were amalgamated. One writer describes the Tyneside Irish as of “fighting itself to death” before the end of the war. This was the nature of the battalion that the likes of William Tyers of Ibstock and Arthur Weston of Leicester joined in mid 1917.

In the third week of August 1917, Bristish infantry were attacking the enemy lines at the Knoll and Guillemot Farm, near Hargicourt. On 26th August the 34th Division had attacked Cologne Farm near Hargicourt and repulsed all counter-attacks. Fighting continued in this area into early September with much hostile shelling. It is at this time that William Blakley Tyers of Ibstock is killed in action on the 10th September 1917 and is buried at I. E. 27 HARGICOURT BRITISH CEMETERY.

With two very young children, William's wife Eleanor appears to have stayed at her parent's home until at least the end of the war. It's her parents address that Eleanor gives when she returns the verification from to the IWGC after she receives notice of Thomas' burial place at Hargicourt. And like the other bereaved, Eleanor would have received William's plaque and scroll and medals, before the opportunity came to remember him on the Ibstock war memorial.