| Regiment/Service: |
6th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (British Army) |
| Date Of Birth: |
03/12/1884
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| Died: |
01/07/1916 (Killed in Action) |
| Age: |
31 |
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William Porter was the oldest son of William and Mary Porter. He was born on 3rd December 1884 in Belfast. He was the oldest of five children, all born in Belfast. Second Lieutenant William Porter was serving with the 6th Battalion (att. 1st Battalion) of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers when he was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1st July 1916. William was 31 years old. The CWGC records William as the son of William and Mary Porter, of ‘Beechview’, Balmoral Avenue, Belfast.
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The village of Beaumont-Hamel was attacked on 1 July 1916 by the 29th Division, with the 4th on its left and the 36th (Ulster) on its right, but without success. On 3 September a further attack was delivered between Hamel and Beaumont-Hamel and on 13 and 14 November, the 51st (Highland), 63rd (Royal Naval), 39th and 19th (Western) Divisions finally succeeded in capturing Beaumont-Hamel, Beaucourt-sur-Ancre and St. Pierre-Divion. Following the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line in the spring of 1917, V Corps cleared this battlefield and created a number of cemeteries, of which Ancre British Cemetery (then called Ancre River No.1 British Cemetery, V Corps Cemetery No.26) was one. There were originally 517 burials almost all of the 63rd (Naval) and 36th Divisions, but after the Armistice the cemetery was greatly enlarged when many more graves from the same battlefields and from the following smaller burial grounds.
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