Born 27th September 1895
Killed near St. Quentin, Friday 22nd March 1918
Will Grinham was an old Downshall and Essex County High School boy and began his career with the London City & Midland Bank. A scholar in our Sunday School from 1904, he was for some years a Registrar. The Football Club highly valued his services both as Secretary and player. He enlisted in November 1915 in the Queen's Westminster Rifles and went to France in July 1916. Two months later he was in Dublin, a victim of shell shock. Will went to France again in 1917, and with the 13th Gloucesters fought near Ypres and Passchendaele. For a long time he was missing and it transpired that he was killed by a shell near St. Quentin. The body that held his really lovable personality —one recalls his thoughtful expression and attractive smile—lies buried in the Churchyard of Templeux la Fosse. His war experiences deepened his experience of God, and in a letter dated less than a month before his death he wrote of the Church, “I am often near in thought and I feel that some of the lessons I learnt are helping me now."
Reproduced from Homage: A Record of Our Heroes (a commemorative booklet produced by Seven Kings United Methodist Church c.1920)