William J. Spencer

Rank: Water Tender Second Class, U.S. Navy

Serial: 06511483

Unit: USS Princeton

Entered service from: New Jersey

Died: October 24, 1944

Missing in action or buried at sea. Listed on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery, Manila, Philippines.

Awards: Purple Heart

Water Tender Second Class William J. Spencer, of 130 Ellis Street, Gloucester City, New Jersey, was killed in action during the Battle of the Leyte Gulf in October of 1944. The son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Spencer, he had worked for the New York Shipbuilding Company prior to his entry into the Navy, enlisting in early 1941. He went overseas in April, 1943. Besides his parents, he left a brother John, who was serving in the Army in the Hawaiian Islands as of December 1944.