Biography:
William Earle Villiers was born 6 January 1897, the second son of John Russell Villiers, of 49 Hans Place, Sloane Street, London SW1, and his wife Grace Elizabeth Villiers, daughter of Major-General William Earle CB, CSI. He was the older brother of Brigadier Richard Montagu Villiers DSO and Bar (C1919-1923).
William came to Winchester College in September 1910 from Mr. A.S. Tabor’s school at Cheam. He was in C House, Du Boulay's, under Mr Little. He was Head of House in his last year, 1915.
Villiers had matriculated at New College, Oxford, when war broke out but he never took up residence and was gazetted straight from school to 5th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps. He went to the front in May 1916, took part in the fighting on the Somme that summer, and served for some time as instructor at a training camp at Le Havre. He was then attached to 9th Battalion, where he obtained his captaincy and command of a company shortly before his death.
He was killed at Wieltje, near Ypres, on 10 November 1917, while superintending a working party engaged in fixing a gun. He was twenty years old. Villiers rests in grave II.C.14 of the White House Cemetery.