William Robert Loosley  was born in Towersey in 1888 the sixth of nine children born to George and Sarah Ann Loosley (nee Chowns).   By 1901 he was a live-in errand boy with grocer George Bailey at 107 High Street Thame, and in 1911 his widowed mother and family were living at 2 Bridge Terrace, Thame.

William joined the Grenadier Guards on 29th August 1906 at the age of 18 and served as a Guardsman with regimental number 12843.  He departed for France with the 2nd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards on 13th August 1914 and died a month later in the battle at Soupir, France where the British Expeditionary Force was trying to stem the German advance.

He was killed in action on the 14/15th September 1914 one of the earliest casualties of the war.  He has no known grave and is commemorated on La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial, Seine-et-Marne, France.

William is remembered in Thame on the War Memorial and on All Saints church Memorial Board. He is also remembered on the Towersey Memorial Board.