Harrogate Herald - 9th May 1917

W H Breare letter

I have had the Byers lads in. I wrote of one of them a short time ago. He is a petty officer, or perhaps I should say an apprentice, on a naval transport. This is W H Byers, son of our Librarian, who, I am sorry to say, has not got quite well as we all could have wished. Well, W H Byers went to sea in September on the steamer Kildale. She was torpedoed on April 12th. She had two torpedoes in her. He was also at that place on the White Sea, near Archangel, where the terrible explosion took place. It was six miles away from Archangel, yet people were killed in that town. Byers told me that Oxley, whose mother lives at 49 Dragon Avenue, was second cook on his ship; but he was wounded in the face, and is not with him now.