William Noel Emerson was born on 25 January 1892 in Wing, the son of William and Elizabeth (nee Pepper) Emerson. He married Amy Ethel Selby at the Registry Office in Aston, Warwickshire, in 1916. William joined the Royal Navy as a Stoker (2nd Class) on 29 August 1917. He began his service on Victory II, the on-shore training base at Crystal Palace. On 9 April 1918 he was posted to HMS Amphitrite where he remained until the end of the war, becoming Stoker (1st Class) from 15 August 1918. Amphitrite, a minelayer operating in the North Sea, apparently got into an accident with HMS Nessus on 8 September 1918 in which Nessus was sunk. William was demobilised on 21 March 1919. He died in Kings Road, Oakham on 26 January 1920. The causes of death are listed as pneumonia, influenza and malaria, probably another victim of the great 'flu pandemic which swept the world at the time. He is buried in Oakham Cemetery, compartment 24, beside his wife, who later remarried. We have not yet been able to determine the exact plot since there is no readable grave marker in that area and it maybe there is no marker at all. William and Amy had three children, Edna, Amy and a son also called William Noel. William senior is remembered on Oakham's war memorial.

See below. We're grateful to site user zoid9969 for all our information about William. He is not featured in Rutland and the Great War by George Phillips and the only details we had were that he is buried in Oakham and is remembered on the war memorial.