Denaby Soldier Wounded – Hurt in Palestine Ambush (picture)

July 1936

Mexborough and Swinton Times July 17, 1936

Denaby Soldier Wounded
Hurt in Palestine Ambush

shelton

A War Office telegram (harbinger of bad news in great war days) made its appearance in Denaby last weekend. It was received in firbeck Street, at the home of Mr and Mrs W Shelton and although it did not bring disastrous news, it brought worry for its recipients.

The telegram informed them that their 22-year-old son, William Shelton, a private showing in Palestine in their first battalion of the York and Lancs. Regiment, had received a gunshot wound in the left shoulder during the Arab riots on Friday (previously).

Although is not known locally how the wound was received, it is presumed from press reports that Shelton was probably one of the two soldiers who received their wounds when an omnibus with a military convey was ambushed by terrorists between Jenin and Nablus. One Jewish bus passenger was killed and two seriously injured.

The Telegram stated that Pte. Shelton had received a wound in the left shoulder of “moderate severity,” and that a letter would follow. This letter more or less a repetition of the telegram, arrived on Monday.

Pte. Shelton joined up last December, and before serving in Palestine was stationed in Egypt. His father served with the eighth battalion of the York and Lancs’s throughout the Great War without being injured once.