William Cecil's Story.
EARLY LIFE
William Cecil Nield was born on 25th May and baptised on 30th June 1895 at Christ Church, Macclesfield, the son of Mary Ann and William Nield, an asylum attendant, of Great King Street, Macclesfield.
By 1901, William’s father had died and the five-year-old was living with his widowed mother, a forewoman machinist, and siblings Charles (7), Hilda (4) and Amy (3) at 4 Crown Street West, Macclesfield.
William's mother remarried in 1904, marrying silk weaver George Worth at St John's Church, Macclesfield. However, she still appears in William's Army records with the surname Nield.
William and his two older brothers were educated at the Royal Hibernian Military school in Dublin, implying that the family had a strong military connection. William himself entered the school on 19th January 1903 and remained there until his fourteenth birthday, 25th May 1909. In Dublin the following day he joined the Leicestershire Regiment (service no. 8727) for 12 years. His description made clear he was just a young lad: 4ft 11in tall, weight 84 pounds, 30 inch chest, fresh complexion, grey eyes and light brown hair. His mother was named as next of kin, living at 72 Brown Street, Macclesfield.
William gained his third class certificate of education on 30th July 1909 and his second class certificate on 16th December 1909. He was transferred to the 1st Cheshire Regiment with service number 9361 on 7th October 1909, and listed in the 1911 census as a fifteen-year-old "schoolboy" with the 1st Cheshire Regiment in the Victoria Barracks, Belfast.
William was discharged from the Army two years later on 16th November 1911: His services being no longer required.
WW1 SERVICE
Soon after the outbreak of World War One, William attested at Chester and, on 17th February 1915 he was drafted to fight in the second battle of Ypres. Just 25 days later on the 14th March he was killed in action, aged 19 years. Private Nield's death was reported in the Macclesfield Times on 1 April 1915:
KILLED NEAR YPRES
Information has... been received of the death in action near Ypres, on the 15th March, of Private William Cecil Nield, 1st Cheshire regiment, youngest son of Mrs William Nield, 72 Brown Street, whose late husband was an attendant at Parkside Asylum. The sad news was conveyed to his mother in the following letter from Quartermaster Sergeant J E Noble, who is a Macclesfield man:
"I deeply regret to say that your son Cecil was killed in action near Ypres on the night of the 15th, and offer you my deepest sympathy. I cannot say how deeply I feel for you, having known the boy practically all his life. He is buried almost in the same place... as he fell. His grave is marked with a cross showing all particulars of him."
Private Nield, who was only 19 years of age, enlisted on September 7th last year. He was previously in the service of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Co. at Manchester. His eldest brother, Bandsman Arthur W Nield, who visited Macclesfield in April last with the detachment of the Cheshire Regt which made a recruiting march through the county, is now a prisoner in Germany, having been captured in the early days of the war when the Cheshires suffered so heavily. His second brother, Private Charles Harding Nield, is now at the front with the Second Cheshires. The three brothers were educated at the Royal Hibernian School, Phoenix Park, Dublin.
Before enlisting, the late Private Nield wrote a touching letter to his mother saying he felt it was his duty to go and fight with his brothers for King and country, and bidding his mother not to worry. He is the fourth Macclesfield man with the 1st Cheshires to fall on the battlefield, the other three being Private Allman, of Bank Street, Lance-Corporal Robinson, Great King Street, and Private H Dobson, Union Street.
COMMEMORATION
Private William Nield has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission holds casualty details for Private William Nield, and he is listed on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website.
In Macclesfield, Private William Nield is commemorated on the Park Green, Town Hall and St Michael's Church war memorials and St John’s Church Roll of Honour.
Elsewhere, he is listed on the Royal Hibernian Military School's roll of honour.
NOTES
William Cecil Nield was the brother of Arthur William and Charles Harding Nield, who both served with the Cheshire Regiment.
Research by Rosie Rowley, Macclesfield.