William Swyer Stockley

Story:
William Swyer Stockley was born in Iwerne Minster, Shaftesbury, Dorset, on 3 Feb 1896 the son of Edwin Swyer Stockley and Caroline Stockley (nee Wareham).   He lived all his life in the Iwerne Minster area apart from Military Service.   He enlisted and joined the Duke of Edinburgh's (Wiltshire) Regiment as a Private (Service No. 26287). He served with the 6th and 1st Battalions in France and Flanders where he was taken prisoner of war.  It is not known where he was during his incarceration but on his discharge on 14 Jun 1919 he was awarded the Victory and British War Medals.   His mother had died in 1917 and the 1921 Census shows he was living with his widower father in Blandford Road, Iwerne Minster, working as a house painter for the local Ismay estate.  He married Barbara Caroline Wareham in the Blandford, Dorset, Registry area in 1923.  By the time of the 1939 Register he was living in Shute Lane, Iwerne Minster, Shaftesbury, Dorset, described as a Pig Butcher and Bacon Curer.  He died locally on 3 Jan 1976.