Lance Corporal William Henry Batts was the son of William and Ann Batts of Southam Cottage, Oakham, where he was born on 15 September 1884. He was educated at Oakham School and at the outbreak of war was assistant clerk to the Guardians and Rural District Council of Winchester, after qualifying in his father's office in Oakham. He enlisted in August 1914 into the 1st/4th Battalion Hampshire Regiment, and was promoted to Lance Corporal soon afterwards. In October 1914 he went to the Persian Gulf and fought in Mesopotamia [Iraq] and during the siege of Kut. He had been recommended for a commission and had passed his medical but events overtook him. The British were forced to surrender at Kut and he became a prisoner of war. William died of recurrent fever at Angora and was buried in the local Armenian Cemetery. He is now remembered on the Angora Memorial, 19, at Baghdad's North Gate Cemetery in Iraq, and on both the war memorial in All Saint's Churchyard in Oakham, and the memorial in Oakham School Chapel.