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''.

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* {{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