John William Streets (24 March 1886 – 1 July 1916), better known as Will Streets, was an English soldier and poet of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
Streets was born in
Whitwell, Derbyshire
Whitwell is a village in Derbyshire, England. The population of the civil parish (including Whitwell Common) taken at the 2011 Census was 3,900.
Although Whitwell celebrated its 1,000th anniversary in the 'Whitwell 1000' celebrations of 1989, ...
, the son of William and Clara Streets, and was the eldest of twelve children.
Although academically and artistically gifted, he began work as a miner at the age of fourteen, continuing to educate himself in his spare time.
In August 1914, Streets joined the
Sheffield City Battalion
The Sheffield City Battalion was a Pals battalion during the First World War .
Raised in 1914, it was designated as the 12th (Sheffield City) (Service) Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment.
History Recruits
The battalion found its recruit ...
(Sheffield Pals). In late 1915 and early 1916 he served in Egypt. The battalion was subsequently transferred to the Western Front. Streets, by this time a sergeant, was wounded on the first day of the
Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...
, and subsequently went missing. His body was eventually recovered exactly ten months later, on 1 May 1917, and he is buried at Euston Road Cemetery,
Colincamps
Colincamps (; pcd, Colincamp) is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.
Geography
Colincamps is situated on the D129 and D4129 crossroads, some northeast of Amiens.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Somm ...
, France. His poems were posthumously published in the same year under the title ''The Undying Splendour''.
See also
*
List of solved missing person cases
Lists of solved missing person cases include:
* List of solved missing person cases: pre-2000
* List of solved missing person cases: post-2000
See also
* List of kidnappings
* List of murder convictions without a body
* List of people who di ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Streets, Will
1886 births
1910s missing person cases
1916 deaths
20th-century male writers
British Army personnel of World War I
British military personnel killed in the Battle of the Somme
British World War I poets
Formerly missing people
Missing in action of World War I
Missing person cases in France
People from Whitwell, Derbyshire
York and Lancaster Regiment soldiers
Military personnel from Derbyshire