William W. Brickell: Another Halifax Boy Pays Supreme Sacrifice, 1918

From The Roanoke News, Weldon, N.C., Nov. 14, 1918

William W. Brickell. . . Another Halifax Boy Has Paid the Supreme Sacrifice

The sad news has reached us that William W. Brickell, the eldest son of Mr. R.B. Brickell and his wife, Mrs. Irene Moseley Brickell, was so badly wounded in action in France on the 17^th day of October last, that he died in a short time after reaching the hospital over there. This is another death that brings the war very close to us.

Billy Brickell, as all of us knew him, was 33 years old Oct. the 6^th, 1918. He was a member of Company E 119^th Infantry of the American Expeditionary Forces in France.

While the great mass of our people have suffered little inconvenience by reason of the war, and while many have actually grown richer and richer by reason of conditions which it has brought about, this young man, the hope of his parents and the pride of his friends, has paid in full and to the limit, the debt of a soldier. In hours like this, one stumbles over the ways of Providence until the thought is borne upon us that it is not how long a man lives, but how well he lives. Measuring this young soldier by that standard, his life was as full and well rounded as if he had lived out a man’s allotted time. He has given the full measure of a patriot to a cause that is just as holy as any for which men ever strove.

When we come to think who he was, on both sides of his ancestry, there will be no surprise that he was not afraid on the battlefield. He was a type of our best stock. The older citizens will remember his grandfather, whose name he bore, Mr. William W. Brickell, whose life was another name for uprightness, integrity and dignity, and whose sons had a part in the Civil war, more than 50 years ago. So when his country called last year, every one knew that there would be Brickells in the line.

It was our fortune to know him from his youth. He was of handsome face, splendid figure and had a disposition of the gentlest elements. His life was quiet and he was one of the props to his parents as the shadow of age began to creep upon them.

His education was in the schools of the county and at Buie’s Creek Academy. While there he made a profession of faith and united with the Baptist church. His conduct was consistent and exemplary, he was faithful to his religious duties, and he adorned the life which he lived, devoted to his father and mother, sisters and brothers, and their friends everywhere would wish that they might share this burden that has come upon them.

And when the end came, what more can any one wish? He died not in the glare of public life, but as a private soldier, safe in the salvation for which his Saviour died. His name is on the Honor Roll of his country and he belongs to the ages just as truly as if he had been among those who lead instead of among those who followed.

It will be a loving duty of those who remained at home to keep in tender memory the name of William W. Brickell. His father and mother have been greatly honored when this young soldier was accounted worthy to have made the supreme sacrifice.