Captain William Steadman, MC
William Steadman was born in Mallwyd, Wales, in 1892, son of hotel proprieter and farmer Thomas Steadman and his wife Eliza.
When the war began he was studying medicine, but he immediately volunteered to go to France with the British Red Cross Society, embarking on 2 October 1914. He worked as a 'dresser' at the Allied Forces Base Hospital, returning to England in 1915 to complete his studies.
On 24 May 1916 he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps and joined the headquarters detachment of the newly-formed 2nd North Irish Horse Regiment, serving as the regiment's medical officer.
On 24 May 1917 he was promoted to captain.
Steadman left the regiment when it was dismounted and most of the officers and men were absorbed into the 9th Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers, although where he served subsequently is not known.
At the end of 1917 he was awarded a Military Cross:
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in superintending the loading of wounded men on to the tramway, and in assisting the stretcher-bearers, under heavy fire. He also repeatedly went in search of wounded, and was the means of bringing a large number to safety. Later, though gassed, he continued at duty.
This may have been during the Battle of Passchendaele (Third Ypres).
After the war he practised medicine, residing in Snettisham, Norfolk.