William Woodier was born on 12th July 1891 and baptised on 30th August of that year at St Peter’s in Aston-by-Sutton. He was the son of John Woodier who was born at Sutton Weaver in about 1861 and his wife Annie (nee Larton) who was born in about 1868 in Aston.
The 1901 Census recorded William as living on Chester Road in Sutton Weaver. His father was a carter for a coal dealer and the four children were Thomas aged 11 years, William aged 9 years, Frank aged 7 years and Margaret aged 2 years. Another daughter called Emily Mary had died aged 5 years in 1900. Frank died in the Great War.
Ten years later Frank had left home, John was employed as a carter in his own right, Thomas was working as a house painter and William was a waggoner on a farm. Margaret was at school. Two years later William became a platelayer on the railway and joined the Preston Brook branch of the National Union of Railwaymen.
On 29th November 1915 William enlisted at Frodsham to serve in the Great War. He was 24 years and 4 months old and was 5’10’’ in height. He was assigned as a sapper to the 269th Railway Company of the Royal Engineers and given the service number 261659. Later in the war he also had the service number 210256. He trained at Longmoor in Hampshire. He was a “skilled” platelayer from January 1917, subsequently being promoted to a “superior” and then a “very superior” platelayer in 1918 and into 1919. He was admitted to hospital on 20th May 1917, but rejoined his unit shortly afterwards. He was admitted again in December 1917 and rejoined his unit in early January 1918. It is not known for what reasons or where.
In spring 1918 his mother Annie died aged 51 years and William went on leave to home until 3rd June of that year. On 24th August his brother Frank died in action in France. William was finally despatched to the UK in late March 1919 and returned home.
Six months later, on 30th September 1919, William married Rossetta Ann Renton at St Gabriel’s Church of England Church in Toxteth Park, Liverpool. She was born in 1897 in Liverpool.
William’s father John passed away in 1928 aged 68 years.
The 1939 Register showed William and Rossetta Ann living in Yates Street in Liverpool, with two of Rosetta’s siblings. William was a railway labourer. They had no children.
William died in early 1947 in Liverpool aged 55 years. Rossetta Ann died in 1972 at the age of 75 years.