William Dickman was born in Houghton Regis in January 1901.

In the 1911 census he is aged 10 & living with his family in the High Street, Leagrave, Luton. His father James is 50 years old & working as a carpenter & joiner, his mother Elizabeth Martha 40, is at home looking after him & Ivy, 14. His older brother Jim is 16 & working as a stonemason's labourer & Daisy 19, is working as an ironer in a laundry.

William attested on 14th November 1916, 1 day after his brother Sergeant Jim Dickman had died. He enlisted into the 1/5th Bedfordshire Regiment & was posted to Egypt on 17th March 1917.

During his service in Egypt he was admitted several times into various hospitals suffering from influenza, mumps & fever but on 18th October 1918 William was admitted to the 2/1st East Anglian Field Ambulance, Acre in Cairo, suffering from Pneumonia. 10 days later he was evacuated to the 47th Stationary Hospital with a high temperature of 103.2 , where he stayed until  21st November, when he was admitted to the 27th General Hospital in Cairo.

Blood tests had revealed that there were parasites in his blood system, which indicated Malaria. He was invalided out of the army & sent back home to the UK via HMT Neuralia on Christmas Eve 1918. He arrived at 21/1st Southern General Hospital in Birmingham on 3rd January 1919. He then stayed at 35 Westbourne Road, Queens Park, Bedford to recuperate.

He survived the war & in 1924 married Dorothy M Thurlow. William died in 1988 in Luton aged 87.