| Notes: | MMP. Awarded the 1915 Star, Victory and War Medals. First served abroad (1) France, 29/11/1915 to 10/7/1916 and 29/76/1917 to 11/11/18. He has 2 x medal cards, 1 x W Warden, 1915 Star and 2 x W Worden, Victory and War Medals. Name spelt Worden on medal roll page B138.
Info from Pension Index Card: Worden, William, MMP, 2111, (P/2214) L/Cpl, 19 Arthur Street, Tunstall, Staffs. Also:- 6/MW/6529. Worden, William, MMP, P/2211, L/Cpl, 19 Arthur Street, Tunstall, Staffs, Sec 6/MW/6653 which has been cancelled 9/12/20.
His No. on medal index card shown as P/2214 and on Pension Index Card as 2211.
William Worden.
Extract from the Evening Sentinel 20 October 1930.
SERGEANT W. WORDEN OF TUNSTALL. Popular Officer's Retirement.
A Well known member of the Stoke on Trent City Police Force, Sergeant William Worden, of Tunstall retires on Wednesday.
Following a period of army service, Sergeant Worden joined the police force of his native borough, Preston, in 1904 and he served there until 1910 when he came to the Potteries at the time of Federation. All his service in Stoke on Trent has been spent in Tunstall.
In June, 1913 he was appointed Detective Officer and he remained on detective work until he joined the army in September, 1915. On coming out of the army in August, 1919, he resumed his duties as a Detective Officer and on Christmas Day, 1919, he was promoted Sergeant.
Sergeant Worden enjoys a well earned reputation for his efficiency and zealous attention to duty and on a number of occasions he has received the commendations of magistrates.
SOLDIER AT 16.
In addition to his service in the Police Force, Sergeant Worden has had a most interesting army career. He first joined the army in 1897, at the age of 16 and he subsequently served with the East Lancashire Regiment at Aldershot, Portsmouth an Jersey.
On the outbreak of the South African War he went on active service with his Regiment. In the same contingent was a battalion of the North Staffords, a battalion of the Cheshire Regiment and a battalion of the Oxford Light Infantry. From each of these battalions was erected a company of picked men, who were formed into a separate unit which was known at the 8th Battalion Mounted Infantry. Sergeant Worden was among those who comprised the new battalion.
Sergeant Worden served with the battalion during the whole of the War under the late General Sir Henry Rawlinson (who afterwards became Lord Rawlinson) and he took part in the battle of Paradeberg, where General Cronje was captured and which preceded the relief of Kimberley. Owing to the mobility of the unit, the "8th" took a prominent part in guerilla warfare that characterised the campaign following the fall of Pretoria.
On returning to England on the cessation of hostilities he rejoined the East Lancashires and was stationed at Dublin until obtaining his discharge in June 1904. it was soon after that that he joined the Preston Borough Police Force.
During the earlier part of the Great War Sergeant Wo4rden ran a recruiting station at the Town Hall, Tunstall and in September 1915, he joined up himself. Within a month of joining up he went 6to France, where he served with the Military Mounted Police with 55th Division, until being invalided home from the Somme in 1916. he returned to France in 1917 and remained there until rejoining the Stoke on Trent City Police Force.
It is interesting to note that Chief Inspector John L. Smith, of Burslem, was on active service in South Africa when in his early teens at the same time as Sergeant Worden, though it was not until the latter joined the Stoke on Trent Force that the two met.
Chief Inspector Smith and Sergeant Worden are the only members of the Stoke on Trent City Force who hold the South African medals, the other members who served in the Boer War having retired.
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