How did Walter die?

[PHalsall]

Hi,

My grandfather's brother, 1261 Sergeant Walter Halsall of the 1/7 King's Liverpool Regiment was killed on 25th September 1916. His older brother, 1191 Lance Corporal William Halsall having already been killed at Festubert on 16th May 1915. I have been trying to determine how these men died. William's story seems better documented than Walter's in that the History of the Regiment by Everard Wyrall (free online, google books) gives a full description of the events of the day and it appears more than likely he was cut down by German fire when attacking enemy trenches in a tragic episode that led to the 'shell crisis'. Walter is proving more difficult. I have downloaded the War Diaries but September 1916 is missing! The History of the Regiment by Wyrall includes nothing specific for the date in question. It's a long shot I know but if anyone can suggest any other avenues worth exploring I would be grateful. The account provided in the local newspaper is given below but does not answer my question!

 

FOUR SONS IN ARMS.

TWO LITHERLAND BROTHERS KILLED.

Mr. and Mrs. James Halsall, of 87, Sefton-road, Litherland, out of their five sons have given four to their country's service in the field. The fifth is engaged practically in an occupation calculated to assist our forces. Two of the sons in arms have unhappily been killed, and the family have received many expressions of sympathy in their bereavement.

William, the third son, a lance-corporal in the K.L.R., was killed at Festubert in May of last year. He was then 22 years of age and had been in France about six months. In the first instance he was simply reported missing, but after a time his death on May 16th was reported.

His younger brother, Walter, who attained the rank of sergeant in the King's, was wounded in the same battle, and for some time was in a French hospital. Ultimately, he recovered.

Intimation has now been received of the death, on September 25th - three days after he had attained his 21st year - of Sergt.Walter Halsall, the youngest brother just referred to. He was killed in the Somme campaign.

Both brothers had resided with their parents at the address above mentioned. They were natives of Litherland, and attended St.Sepulchre's School and Church. William was employed by Messrs. Harland and Wolff at Bootle, and Walter had worked for the Liverpool Tanning Company, Ltd., of which Mr. A. Appleton, J.P., is managing director. Walter made a good show in the football field, being regarded as a safe goalkeeper. Both brothers were well known, and like all members of the family, held in high esteem.

A comrade of Sergt. Walter Halsall, writing to deceased's parents, said: "He was always cheery and bright, and. thank God, he knew where his duty lay." A non-commissioned officer also wrote, "He had given his life for King and country. He was the best sergeant in the Company, and he was well liked by all his comrades. Please accept his Company's and my own sincere condolence on your sad bereavement, for he died a hero."

The eldest son of the family - James - is married, his wife and three children residing at Litherland, is a gunner in the Garrison Artillery, and has been away on service about 15 months. The youngest son, who has just attained his nineteenth year, left home to join up on Tuesday.

Bootle Times 17th November 1916

[TEW]

I would start by checking the brigade diary.

TEW

[kenf48]

The Brigade diary records the 165 Infantry Brigade relieved the 166 Infantry Brigade in trenches from Ginchy to High Wood on the 21st.  

There is an op order for an attack on Gird Trench, the narrative of the attack appears to be missing, but you will no doubt study the pages more carefully.

 

The 1/6 KLR diary outlines the Brigade attack on the 25th at Flers noting ‘there were many acts of great bravery’.   Surprised it’s not mentioned in the history.  The other Battalions do not describe the attack in such detail. The 1/6 reported 15 OR killed and 110 wounded, it seems likely the1/7 suffered similar losses. Assume you’ve seen the concentration report on CWGC.

 

Ken

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PRC]

Soldiers Died in the Great War records him as Killed in Action.

 

Long Long Trail has the following for the 1st/7th Battalion.

 

1/7th Battalion
August 1914 : in Park St, Bootle. Part of Liverpool Brigade, West Lancashire Division.
8 March 1915 : landed at Le Havre and transferred to 6th Brigade, 2nd Division.
4 September 1915 : transferred to 5th Brigade in same Division.
15 November 1915 : transferred to 22nd Brigade, 7th Division.
7 January 1916 : transferred to 165th Brigade, 55th (West Lancashire) Division.

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-british-infantry-regiments-of-1914-1918/kings-liverpool-regiment/

 

A forum post on the Somme Day by Day has the following for the 25th September 1916.

 

55th Div attacked with 165 Bde. 1/6th, 1/7th and 1/9th Bns of the King’s Regt took Gird Trench at 1pm and, while 1/6th blocked the trench north of the Flers-Guedecourt road, 1/9th Bn cleared Grove Alley. At 2.40pm 1/7th Bn entered part of the sunken road between Gird Trench and Guedecourt.

https://forum.irishmilitaryonline.com/showthread.php?9058-The-Somme-Day-by-Day/page5

 

Hope that gets things started and seconding the comment above - the Brigade War Diary for the same period includes a copy of the War Diary for each of the units that made up the Brigade.

 

Hope that helps,

Peter

[PHalsall]

This is all tremendously helpful, as always on this site. It will be this evening until I can follow up these leads so watch this space!

 

Thanks

 

Pete

[WhiteStarLine]

Pete, reading the name Gird Trench reminded me of the photo of Australian War Correspondent, Charles Bean, in Gird Trench in late 1916.  I doubt it was a pleasant place in September either:

Quote

Informal portrait of Captain C E W Bean, Official War Correspondent, knee deep in mud in Gird trench, near Gueudecourt in France, during the winter of 1916-1917.

 

[PHalsall]

Thanks everyone, those contributions pointed me in the right direction, and I also used the Battalion diaries 'bread crumb trail' to locate the following account within a Phd thesis written about the 7th KLR in the Great War. It uses the same sources but is written more fluently than I would. Obviously my man's specific death is not included but the events of the day give a close picture of what must have happened to him. The link at the bottom, for anyone interested, is an engagingly written NZ source which describes the realted activity of their troops, ending with their link up with the Liverpool men. The photo provided by WhiteStarLine was an unexpected bonus, and appreciated. Looks pretty ghastly and I'm sure it was much worse in reality!

GWF never lets you down, cheers.

 

Gregson thesis

At 12.35pm the assault began, with the first waves following the creeping barrage. Coop reported that they kept closer to the barrage than ever before, preferring to suffer some casualties from possible short shells from their own gunners, rather than to run the risk of allowing the barrage to get away from them and of being compelled to face the enemy's uninterrupted machine gun and rifle fire. 134 A detailed account of the attack can be found in the draft reports prepared by Brigade and Divisional command. The Battalion War Diary showed that preparations went on from 23rd September with C and D Companies in the Front Line. In the attack, on 25th, possession was gained of Goat and Gird Trench, Gird Support, the Sunken Road and Factory Corner at the expense of Second Lieutenants Lewis, Patterson and Turnbull, killed, and several injured officers, including Lieutenant Colonel Potter. 135 He was wounded at about 2.10pm and Captain JG Thompson MC went forward to take command of the Battalion. 136 After consolidating the next day, the Battalion moved back to Carlton and Savoy Trenches on 27th and away to billets at Buire on 28th. 137 132 WO95/2927 1/7th Battalion King's Liverpool Regiment War Diary 25th September 1916 133 Oram Worthless men pp. 85-9 134 Coop The Story of the 55th Division p.42 135 WO95/2927 1/7th Battalion King‟s Liverpool Regiment War Diary 23rd – 25th September 1916 136 WO95/2900 55th Division War Diary 165th Brigade Draft narrative of events 23rd – 27th September 1916 and Division Draft Narrative of operations 17th – 28th September 1916 137 WO95/2927 1/7th Battalion King's Liverpool Regiment War Diary 27th – 29th September 1916 144 From the 165th Brigade report, it was clear that this was a successful attack. 138 The Field Artillery barrage commenced at zero hour and moved at 50 yards lifts every minute with the infantry following as closely as possible. The barrage for the second stage began at 2.41pm from a point 150 yards in front of Gird Support. The New Zealand Brigade had already reported reaching their objective and 9th King's were at Factory Corner, although the two were not in touch. By 3pm the second phase appeared to have been carried out and the enemy were seen in retreat. 6th King's held Gird Trench and Gird Support and part of the Sunken Road but were not in touch with 7th King's. Two Companies of 5th King's reinforced both 6th and 7th Battalions, and a company of 7th assisted a Leicester Battalion (21st Division) on the road. In the early evening, 7th King's had a Company missing and another Company divided into Platoons along the Sunken Road, isolated but within sight of each other. By 10pm the village was reported to be empty by an NCO of 7th who had walked through it. Through the night the situation was consolidated and connections made with the New Zealanders, although there was not direct touch between 7th King's and 110th Brigade, 21st Division. A brief German barrage began in the morning, but by afternoon the 21st Division was able to take Gueudecourt without opposition.

 

NZ account of 25th September

[BarbaraG]

On 13/01/2020 at 22:00, PHalsall said:

Both brothers had resided with their parents at the address above mentioned. They were natives of Litherland, and attended St.Sepulchre's School and Church. William was employed by Messrs. Harland and Wolff at Bootle, and Walter had worked for the Liverpool Tanning Company, Ltd., of which Mr. A. Appleton, J.P., is managing director. Walter made a good show in the football field, being regarded as a safe goalkeeper. Both brothers were well known, and like all members of the family, held in high esteem.

Bootle Times 17th November 1916

 

Think there may be an error with Occupations as 1911 Census shows William as 'Tanner's Labourer' and Walter Grocer's Errand Boy possibly later working Harland and Wolff. 

Have a look at http://www.theyard.info/misc/rohl.asp 

 

[PHalsall]

Thanks Barabara, very kind of you to post, I thought this one was dead!

 

That gave me food for thought and so I did some double checking. It turns out that Walter was the tanner by the time they enlisted. His name is on a memorial provided by Liverpool Tannery, now located in St Philip's Chruch Litherland. http://www.merseysiderollofhonour.co.uk/memorials/southsefton/litherlandtannery.php

 

However, searching around the case led me to another thread on this site that you contributed to about the Harland and Wolff memorial. What a sad tale, but with a relatively happy ending. I was unaware of that story or the account on http://www.theyard.info/misc/rohl.asp so most appreciated.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[PHalsall]

Hi all,

 

The fascinating link  http://www.theyard.info/misc/rohl.asp provided by BarbaraG seems to have gone dead! I was fortunate enough to read it before its crashed but if anyone has archived a version, or in case the fault is with me not 'theyard' I would be delighted to read it again. 

 

Cheers

 

Pete

[MaureenE]

16 hours ago, PHalsall said:

Hi all,

 

The fascinating link  http://www.theyard.info/misc/rohl.asp provided by BarbaraG seems to have gone dead! 

 

There is an archived version

https://web.archive.org/web/20200213182300/http://www.theyard.info/misc/rohl.asp

 

Cheers

Maureen

[PHalsall]

Brilliant Maureen, Got it.

 

Very generous of you to go to the trouble.

 

It would be nice if the memorial could be located. Fingers crossed!

 

Pete