William Newham Drake was born in 1899 in Bradford, the son of Henry Drake and Sarah (formerly Newham) of Undercliffe, Bradford, and descendant of a long-established Bradford Drake family.

William was an Ordinary Seaman aged 18 aboard H M S Louvain when she was torpedoed died 20 Jan 1918. His name is to be found on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial (Reference 29).

H M S Louvain was previously named S S Dresden, being renamed when she was taken over by the Admiralty in 1915 as an armed boarding steamer. She was torpedoed by a German U-Boat in the Aegean Sea in 1918 with the loss of seven officers and 217 men.

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