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Remembered Today:

Kings (Liverpool) Regiment


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I've just taken delivery of the regimental history for The King's Regiment (Liverpool) between 1914 and 1919.

Any look-ups required, just ask.

Dave.

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Dave

One of the men on the Rhayader Memorial was with the 13th Bn. and was kia 11th April 1918. He is commemorated on the Loos Memorial. Would you please let me know if there is any information regarding this date ?

Regards

Myrtle

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Hi Myrtle.

The 13th (9th Bde,3rd Div.) had come under the orders of 165th Bde,55th Div. on the night of 9/10th April.

Here are the snippets regarding 11th April :

post-16-1053126783.jpg

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...and the second...

post-16-1053127173.jpg

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... If you need a better scan of these pages sending via email, just let me know.

dave.

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Myrtle,

The Kings number was allocated late in the war probably after January 1918 and the number block was used for men who transferred to the King’s as reinforcements from other Regts. I am no expert on the Herefords but my King’s database lists Price as formerly 8157/237051 1 Hereford Regt (the two numbers are his 4 and 6 fig TF numbers). I would guess that as he has a high 4 fig number he probably enlisted in 1917. However there may be a Herefords expert out there who is better placed to comment on this number.

If you have any personal information (apart from War Graves) on Price would be grateful to add it to my Liverpool Regt database.

Have also appended info from the War Diary and from Wyrall which you can cut and paste (Dave hope you don't mind - not trying to scoop you!)

Regards

Joe

Extracted from 13 KLR War Diary

11/4/1918

At dawn, Captain GT Hick with ‘A’ Company was ordered to take his company and gig a position running N.W. - S.E in X27.c. behind an existing belt of wire. By night he had completed 250 yards of continuous trench and the remainder of the line was held with small posts and rifle pits.

About noon on the 11th inst the enemy artillery became very active in and about Festubert and at 4pm the garrison of Festubert Keep East (S.26.c.7.3. and of Cailloux Keep North and South (Near Brewery Corner) were driven back.

Captain Barrett was ordered by O.C. 5th King’s to retake Festubert East with his platoon in Festubert Keep. This counter-attack was entirely successful and ‘C’ Company continued to hold this position until relieved on the night of 13/14th April.

2nd Lieutenant FD Bartley D.C.M. also received orders the when the barrage lifted he was to retake Cailloux Keep. This was also done and the position held until the company was relieved on the night of 13/14th April.

In the afternoon two platoons of ‘B’ Company in Tuning Fork locality were placed under the orders of O.C. 5th King’s, and were ordered to take up positions in shell holes immediately in the left of Brewery Corner (S.25.b.6.8.) where they remained until relieved.

Captain GT Hick with ‘A’ Company was ordered to relieve elements of 5th King’s in the Festubert area and came under orders of O.C. 10th Liverpool Scottish.

Extracted from Wyrall

Another battalion of the Regiment, i.e. the 13th King's, of the 9th Brigade, 3rd Division, came under the orders of the 165th Brigade during the night of the 9th/10th of April. This battalion was out of the line at Ivergny when the attack began. At midday orders were received to "stand to" and at 8 p.m. that night the battalion marched off to a point between Coupigny and Béthune, whence they were carried by `bus to the latter place. They then marched to Gorre Château, where they came under the orders of the 165th Brigade and were placed in Brigade Reserve.

On the morning of the 11th of April, at 11 a.m., the enemy, after a very heavy bombardment, attacked the 55th Division from Loisne to the Lawe Canal. The centre and left of the 166th Brigade were pressed back slightly, the latter flank resting on the Pont Tournant east of Locon.

. . . . . . . .

During the afternoon the Village Line was again attacked, and Festubert East Keep and Cailloux Keep were captured by the enemy; they were, however, recaptured by an immediate local counter-attack and by 7 p.m. the line had been completely restored.

In the attack on the 166th Brigade the King's men do not appear to have been involved, the 1/10th merely recording that the enemy bombarded the line between 7.15 a.m. and 8.15 a.m.

The King's men of the 165th Brigade had heavy fighting. During the afternoon the Germans were reported advancing in great numbers between Rue Cailloux and Quinque Rue, and massing all along the Old British Line. The guns were turned on to them and they suffered very heavy casualties, which prevented the attack developing along the southern portion of the line. By 4.30 p.m., however, Festubert East and Cailloux Keeps had fallen, the garrisons being driven out by the very heavy shell-fire. The 1/5th and 13th King's recaptured these two places, Major Keet and Capt. Barratt doing specially good work. The 1/6th were also concerned in the re-taking of these two points.

The enemy's shell-fire on the 11th was terrific: in many parts of the line, and particularly in portions of the Tuning Fork Switch, the breastworks were entirely obliterated.

The men were by now very tired and shaken, for two days they had been fighting and had had practically no sleep.

During the night of the 11th/12th, the 1/5th and 1/6th were relieved and moved back from the front line; the 1/7th King's did not, however, come out until the 14th, having then been in the front line for fifteen days.

Apparently the Battle of Estaires ended on the night of the 11th of April, and by that time the splendid defence put up by the 55th Division had secured the left flank of our line north of the La Bassée Canal. The enemy then directed his efforts against the centre and northern flank.

On the night of the 12th/13th "X" Company of the 1/10th King's (Liverpool Scottish), and "D" Company of the 13th King's (commanded by Captain J. R. McSwiney and Lieut. J. R. Ellis respectively) recaptured Route "A" Keep in a brilliant little counter-attack. Attempts later by the enemy to recapture the Keep were repulsed.

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No, I don't mind ,Joe.

(You could have saved yourself a lot of fingerwork,however! - the 2 scans that I enclosed are from Wyrall's history- word for word what you wrote!)

Dave :)

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Joe

Yes Price, who worked as a builder before the war, was with The Herefords prior to The Kings. The Radnorshire lads who joined the Herefords early in the war usually had 4 fig. numbers starting with 8. Price was at Gallipoli and then in a convalescent camp in Malta until he returned home at the end of March 1916 as a time expired man.

I have spoken with one of Pte Price's relatives but he does not have information of his uncle's war service and so far has not been able to find any photos of him.

The information that I gathered last year, I have been able to pass on to him, and I hope to be able to tell him more in time especially with the great help from such gentlemen as yourself and Dave.

Thank you both

Myrtle :)

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No, I don't mind ,Joe.

(You could have saved yourself a lot of fingerwork,however! - the 2 scans that I enclosed are from Wyrall's history- word for word what you wrote!)

Dave  :)

Dave,

Did not have type out Wyrall as I have sanned all 3 Vols into my computer so able to search for names and words etc. I just cut and pasted it from a Word file! I need to get a life ......

Regards

Joe

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Did not have type out Wyrall as I have sanned all 3 Vols into my computer so able to search for names and words etc. I just cut and pasted it from a Word file! I need to get a life ......

Wow! I bet that took some time!!! :o

Just out of curiosity, could I ask how much disc space that took? (I was planning to do something similar to my 11/E.Lancs war diary which is only (!) 120 pages or so long)

Thanks,

dave.

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Dave,

The file is 2.2Mb. Please ignore this if you know about OCR. You will need to purchase an Optical Charater Reader program to turn the pictures of the pages into editable text. In addition OCR will only work with clear and consistent text eg in a printed book. Even then there is stiill some editing to do eg Blackburn cand be rendered as Blackbum!

Joe

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Thanks for that,Joe.

I've been having trouble with my OCR (it was just churning out pure gobbldigook!). The print on the diary is very "spidery", so I think that this accounts for the problem.

Ah well, back to the drawing board!

dave. :)

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  • 7 months later...

I would be very interested in any entry for 31/11/03 for the 1/10 (Liverpool Scottish) My Great Grandfather, Pte 359315 Robert Henry KNEEN was posted missing on this date. This was later changed to a notification of his capture (and wounding). On discharge he mentions deafness caused by a barrage on that date (the day of his capture).

His B103 shows him attesting 5/3/17, arriving France 03/06/17 and repatriation 30/11/18.

A copy of volume II of the history you have has been handed down to me. As it is shown dated "1916 -1917" I can only assume the wrong volume was bought by or for my forebear. Any other entries that you can send be for the battalion between 03/06/17 to 31/11/17 would be gratefully received

ta

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I would be very interested in any entry for 31/11/03 for the 1/10 (Liverpool Scottish) My Great Grandfather, Pte 359315 Robert Henry KNEEN was posted missing on this date. This was later changed to a notification of his capture (and wounding). On discharge he mentions deafness caused by a barrage on that date (the day of his capture).

His B103 shows him attesting 5/3/17, arriving France 03/06/17 and repatriation 30/11/18.

A copy of volume II of the history you have has been handed down to me. As it is shown dated "1916 -1917" I can only assume the wrong volume was bought by or for my forebear. Any other entries that you can send be for the battalion between 03/06/17 to 31/11/17 would be gratefully received

ta

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Manxman.

I assume that the date you require is 31/11/17 (not 03!!! :P )

Anyway, the following 4 posts cover 29th November to 3rd December 1917 so this encompasses that date...

post-16-1073421288.jpg

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...2...

post-16-1073421384.jpg

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...3...

post-16-1073421464.jpg

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...and 4...

post-16-1073421539.jpg

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Any other entries that you can send be for the battalion between 03/06/17 to 31/11/17 would be gratefully received

If you can send me any specific dates or any specific actions that you'd be interested in, I'd be glad to help. I've just looked up the references to the 1/10 between these dates and there's quite a few - enough to keep me going all night if I attempted to re-find,scan,adjust, post ,etc. each one !

If it's just an "idea" of the actions and locations, etc,that you require then give me a couple of days and I'll see what I can do.

Dave. :)

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Dave, thanks very much for your time and effort, I'm only just starting out researching my G Grandfather's war. I will likely take you up on your kind offer re specifics, once I know what I'm looking for!

On the other hand, I would be dead keen to obtain a copy of volume III of Wyrrall's book myself, could you give me any pointers where I might start (bookseller, dealers, sites, etc), or am I showing my ignorance and it's a mission impossible?

I recently obtained a newly published book on the unit " Bravest of Hearts" which deals with the Liverpool Scottish during WWI. Very powerful pictures and stats

many thanks

Andy

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On the other hand, I would be dead keen to obtain a copy of volume III of Wyrrall's book myself, could you give me any pointers where I might start (bookseller, dealers, sites, etc), or am I showing my ignorance and it's a mission impossible?

Andy.

It's definately not "mission impossible". The Naval and Military Press (they have a website) have reprinted it. I don't think you can buy the volumes individually (from them,anyway), they just sell it as a 3 volume set. If memory serves me correctly, it's about £45 -£50 for the set of 3.

Dave.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Dave:

Could you please look up Private Charles Frederick Pearson, #22212, 20th Bn, who was supposedly KIA 30 July, 1916? Also, any details regarding the action in which he was killed?

Thanks so much for anything you can find,

Chris

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Hi Chris.

(Hope the op. went OK?)

Individuals (especially ORs) are rarely mentioned in the histories, Pearson just gets a mention in the roll of honour at the back. However, SDGW adds that he was born in Helsby,Cheshire - enlisted in Liverpool - and resided in Runcorn, Cheshire.

This is what the history has to say for that day for the 20th Bn. (2 posts)...

post-16-1075237769.jpg

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...and...

post-16-1075237856.jpg

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Hi Dave:

Thanks for the information--very helpful and greatly appreciated. The surgery went "picture perfect" as the surgeon described it, thanks for asking. My back hurts like hell, but I've got my oxycontin and percocet. Gotta wear a back brace whenever I'm outa bed for a couple of weeks. I can understand now how addictive morphine is, it sure worked for me post-op. But hey, my longstanding leg pain is gone, so things are looking up!

Thanks again buddy,

Chris

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