William Clements

Bank: Ulster Bank

Place of work: not known

Died: 16 August 1917

William Hunter Clements was born in Annahilt, County Down, in 1893, the son of Andrew Clements, a teacher, and his wife Margaret. He worked for Ulster Bank.

In September 1914 Clements volunteered to join the army. He served in Gallipoli (where he was wounded), Mudros, the Balkans and Salonika. He was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for gallantry and devotion to duty in the field in 1917 and received a temporary commission.

Second Lieutenant William Hunter Clements of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers died on the Western Front on 16 August 1917, when the German dugout in which he was sheltering was blown up. He was 24 years old.

Ulster Bank's staff magazine later recalled Clements as 'one of those bluff, hearty chaps who had a cheery word for all and we can quite readily understand why he was so popular with his comrades. When we consider the fine chaps who have fallen in this war we realise that the Ulster Bank permanent staff is considerably impoverished thereby.'

William Clements is commemorated on a bank war memorial at Belfast Head Office, Donegall Square East.