William Graham, from Newport, was a Lieutenant in the 9th Battalion of the London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s rifles).
The London Regiment was made up of volunteer battalions.

William Graham’s grandson, of the same name, talks about his grandfather’s enlistment. “He joined up in Davies Street in Mayfair when the Queen Victoria’s rifles were recruiting, possibly because his friends or colleagues were joining up. There was a lot of pressure to do so at the time.”
His grandson tells the family story about the third battle of Ypres, August 1917, in which William fought:
“A piece of shrapnel got embedded in a waistcoat in my grandfather’s pack thus saving his life! My grandfather kept it wrapped in a railway ticket in an envelope.”

William Graham talks about the photographs: “The first one was taken on enlistment into the Queen Victoria’s rifles. The second photograph is taken 20 years later when my grandfather joined the Local Defence volunteers. It was taken to show my grandmother that he could still get into his uniform. He was proud to get into his uniform.”

The envelope was written by William Graham and reads: A piece of shrapnel found embedded in a waistcoat carried in my haversack in the Battle of Ypres in August 1917. In a fight for supremacy of the Ypres Menin road near Glencourse Wood.
The train ticket to Victoria is from September 1917.