William Augustine Roddis

Name	William Augustine Roddis
Corps	Royal Sussex Regiment - 12th, 11th and 16th Battalions
Rank	Private
Service No.	202768
Date/Place of entry
Date of death	1962
Memorial/Grave

The Binley family of Cottingham descended from Thomas Binley, born in Corby in 1802, and his wife Mary nee Reynolds of Cottingham whom he married in 1822. Thomas spent the rest of his life in Cottingham. A full account of the Cottingham and Corby Binleys can be found on the page for Charles Stephen Binley.

Shortly before Thomas married Mary Reynolds, his older sister Elizabeth married James Roddis, a shoemaker of Isham. Their son Augustine was born in 1825 and combined shoemaking with river toll collection at Oundle where he married Eliza Aldwinkle. Augustine moved to Northampton where he and his family lived at the Nene Navigation house. He was a full time toll collector here for many years before moving to Dallington, where he was still listed as toll collector in 1911 at the age of seventy six. The couple had two grandsons who served during the war, William Augustine Roddis and Herbert James Henry Roddis.

William Augustine Roddis was born in Lichfield in 1885 and worked in the shoe trade as a clicker. During the war he served in three battalions of the Royal Sussex Regiment but the only records of his service are medal rolls which give no details other than rank, regiment and number. He was ten years older than his brother Herbert. The two men may well have enlisted together so William Augustine probably served with the Sussex Regiment from 1915, if not earlier.

The 11th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment was formed in September 1914 and fought in France from March 1916. The 12th was formed two months later and also landed in France in March 1916. The 16th (Sussex Yeomanry) Battalion however was formed in Egypt on 3 January 1917 and landed at Marseilles in May 1918. He survived the war and died in Northampton in 1962. His brother Herbert died in 1915 following the Gallipoli campaign.
Other Binley servicemen to whom he was related are Sidney, Percy, Charles, George, and John Binley of Cottingham, John, George and Willis Panter of Cottingham, Albert Gear and Ernest Beeby descended from Cottingham; Wilfred, Bernard, George Frederick and Percy Augustine Binley, and his brother Herbert James Henry Roddis all descended from the Corby Binleys.