Shoreham war hero who was interviewed on BBC documentary dies aged 106

William Earl was involved in the Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy during the Second World War and was interviewed by Gary Lineker on BBC One in 2019 for the TV documentary Gary Lineker: My Grandad’s War.

He set up Shoreham Camera Club and joined the management committees of Shoreham Community Centre and Shoreham Horticultural Society. He also joined the Mario Lanza Society and became chairman in 1980, then trustee of the Mario Lanza Foundation in 1986.

Sadly but not unexpectedly, William peacefully passed away at home on Friday evening. He would have been 107 in May.

Ingrid Ransome, whose husband Jim is William’s second cousin, said: “He was an extraordinary man who told wonderful stories. He was independent and as bright as a button right up to the end. We’ll miss him greatly.”

William was born in Sudbury on May 12, 1915. He trained as a chemist’s assistant at Boots in London before being called up at the age of 25 to join a field ambulance with the Royal Army Medical Corps, leaving his wife-to-be Mary Standen behind.

He trained as a nursing orderly and was responsible for collecting, treating and evacuating the wounded from the front line. He says he never considered himself in the Army, but ‘of the Army’.

William married Mary in November 1941 and their first son, David, was born the following spring. He first saw action in Enfidaville in April 1942 with the Eighth Army. Within weeks, he was involved in a highly dangerous mission to recover the injured from No Man’s Land.

At the end of the North African Campaign, William joined a German dressing station to deal with the wounded before being assigned to join the Anglo-American Fifth Army, which was preparing to invade Italy.

When peace finally came to Italy in May 1945, William raced to beat the New Zealanders to Venice. They won and within two months, William was on his way home, after three years away.

William was demobbed in July 1946 and returned to Boots, where he stayed until he retired. In 1952, William and Mary had a second son, Michael, and four years later, the family moved to Shoreham for health reasons.

Mary died in 1986, after 43 years of happy marriage. Sadly, their children also died within the next seven years.

William married his second wife, Judith Deak, in April 1992 and together, they toured the world.

Five years ago, William co-wrote the book Blood and Bandages with neighbour Liz Coward, telling the story of his time with the medical corps during the war.

Ingrid said William was a cousin of her late father-in-law, who was sadly taken at the age of 41. One of William’s second cousins, Judy, from Danbury, was especially close to him, ‘almost like the daughter he never had’.

She added: “My husband Jim and I last saw him on Boxing Day, when we enjoyed a family meal with him in Danbury. His grandson Anthony and wife Tammy were a constant support to him in recent times.”

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