William Mariner

He crawled through wire and bombed a machine gun post alone.

William Mariner was born at Chorley on 29 May 1882. A collier, he enlisted in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps in 1902 under the name William Wignall and served seven years in India. After reserve service and civilian work as a brick setter, he returned to his battalion in August 1914 using Mariner.

Near Cambrin on 22 May 1915, during a thunderstorm, he crawled through enemy wire to a machine-gun emplacement. He threw a grenade into it, waited as the crew returned and attacked again before escaping through the wire under fire. The lone raid earned the Victoria Cross.

After his investiture and recruiting work in Britain, Mariner returned to France. Wounded in August 1915, he recovered and resumed duty that autumn. He was killed during a bombing attack south of Loos in the early hours of 1 July 1916. There was no later civilian career.