On 3rd April 1892, William Albert Stone was born in Ipswich. Two years later, his family had moved to Melton and, in 1901, the nine-year-old William was at school in the village with his younger brother Oswald. Ten years later, he was a labourer at a local nursery garden and, on 13th June 1913, William started work as an attendant at St Audry’s Hospital, a position he was to keep until his retirement in 1945.

One of six attendants from St Audry’s who enlisted on 27th July 1915 into the Royal Army Medical Corps, William was posted to France with the 68th Field Ambulance, attached to the 22nd Division. They disembarked in France on 9th September, but their stay was to be short as orders were received almost immediately, sending the 22nd Division to the Balkans. The 68th Field Ambulance was then transported by train to the port of Marseilles where they embarked on the journey to Salonika on 27th October 1915. 

After landing at Salonika, William and his colleagues from St Audry’s were posted to support the joint Franco-British force sent to assist the Serbian army in Kosovo. During the fighting on the 8th December 1915, however, they were forced back by the Bulgarian army over the Greek border. At this point, the Bulgarian army stopped their advance as they were forbidden to enter Greek territory due to ongoing German attempts to persuade Greece to join the war, on their side. The 68th Field Ambulance remained in support of the 22nd Division in Salonika for the remainder of the war and would have been involved in the Battle of Horseshoe Hill and the Battle of Machukovo in 1916, the Battle of Doiran between 22nd April and 9th May 1917. On 19th September 1918, they took part in the Third Battle of Doiran just before the Armistice was signed by Bulgaria on 30th September 1918.

William returned to England upon demobilisation and resumed working at St Audry’s on 9th September 1919. For his war service, he received the 1914-15 Star and the British War and Victory Medals. In 1934, William married Madeline Mayhew and they had two daughters. In 1939, the family was living at 1 Plantation Villas on Melton Hill.