Cpl 21814 Joseph Hellon

• Age: 20
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• K.I.A Sunday 30th July 1916
• Commemorated at: Guillemont Rd Cem
  Panel Ref: IV.C.10

Joseph was born in Liverpool on 13th February 1896, the only child of William Myers Hellon and his wife Martha Ellen (nee Lang) who had been married in August 1895 in St Cuthberts Church Everton. Sadly Martha Ellen died and was buried in March 1896 aged only 25. The date of her death is so close to Joseph’s birth that it is possible she died either in childbirth or of complications.

The widowed William aged 30 is found in the 1901 census living with his father Jonathan who is a timber merchants clerk and his mother Ellen at 42 Tetlow Street. William is working as a cotton porter and the 5 year old Joseph is also living there as are six of William’s siblings.

At the time of the 1911 census Joseph is 15 and working as an office boy in a firm of stock and share brokers. He is still living with his father William who is aged 40 and employed as a cotton porter. William’s own father died in 1908 and his widowed mother Ellen is head of the household. Also present are two of her unmarried daughters Ann aged 32 and Hannah aged 28, and a married son Charles aged 23.

Joseph's grandmother Ellen died in 1911 and Joseph’s father William remarried to Caroline Findlay at the Presbyterian Church, Breeze Hill in the same year. 

Joseph enlisted in Liverpool on 16th December 1914, joining the 17th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private 21814 at the attested age of 19 although he was actually a few months off being 19. He gave his occupation as a clerk, and his address as 16 Harlech Street, Walton. He was described as being 5' 4" tall, and weighing 114 lbs, 35” chest, with good physical development. He stated his religion as Presbyterian, and his next of kin as his father at 16 Harlech Street.

25/09/1915 appointed Unpaid Lance Corporal

Joseph did not ship to France with his battalion on 07th November 1915, but was transferred to the 22nd (Reserve) Bn. K.L.R. and remained in the U.K.

On 08th March 1916 he was appointed Paid Lance Corporal

On 13th June 1916 he was appointed Acting Corporal and confirmed in rank

He was posted to France on 01st July 1916 and joined the 17th Bn. KL.R.

He was serving as Corporal 21814 when he was killed in action just four weeks later on the 30th July 1916, aged 20, at the village of Guillemont, France, during the Somme Offensive. 

17th Battalion Diary 

The Battalion was in support to 19 & 20 Battalions K.L.R. 2 Coys. behind 19th & 2 Coys. behind 20th. Very thick mist. The attack was pushed home to the objective in places but in the main was held up by machine gun fire from hidden machine guns.

Fighting continued all day swaying backwards and forwards until by 6pm about 300 yards in depth had been gained & consolidated all along our front.

Casualties in the 17th Battalion were 15 Officers and 281 Other Ranks

Further details are reported in more detailed by Everard Wyrall in his book The History of the King’s Regiment (Liverpool) 1914-1919 Volume II 1916-1917

The 17th King’s had advanced (two companies each behind the 19th and 20th Battalions) in small columns. They too suffered heavily from machine-gun fire and were quickly absorbed into the waves that preceded them. They also shared the gains and losses of that terrible day.

When darkness fell on the battlefield the 30th Division held a line from the railway on the eastern side of Trones Wood , southwards and including Arrow Head Copse, to east of Maltz Horn Farm. On this line the division was relieved by the 55th Division during the early hours of the 31st July. 

The events of 30th July 1916 were regarded at the time as Liverpool’s blackest day. There follows an extract from The History of the 89th Brigade written by Brigadier General Ferdinand Stanley which gives an indication of the events of the day.

Guillemont

Well the hour to advance came, and of all bad luck in the world it was a thick fog; so thick that you couldn’t see more than about ten yards. It was next to impossible to delay the attack – it was much too big an operation- so forward they had to go. It will give some idea when I say that on one flank we had to go 1,750 yards over big rolling country. Everyone knows what it is like to cross enclosed country which you know really well in a fog and how easy it is to lose your way. Therefore, imagine these rolling hills, with no landmarks and absolutely unknown to anyone. Is it surprising that people lost their way and lost touch with those next to them? As a matter of fact, it was wonderful the way in which many men found their way right to the place we wanted to get to. But as a connected attack it was impossible.

The fog was intense it was practically impossible to keep direction and parties got split up. Owing to the heavy shelling all the Bosches had left their main trenches and were lying out in the open with snipers and machine guns in shell holes, so of course our fellows were the most easy prey.

It is so awfully sad now going about and finding so many splendid fellows gone.    

On Saturday 19th August 1916, there was a notice in the Liverpool Daily Post:

“News has been received by his parents of the death in action of Corporal Hellon which took place in the recent heavy fighting. He was 20 years of age. At the outbreak of the war Corporal Hellon was a clerk in the employ of Messrs Pryor and Summerfield, stock and share brokers of this city, but joined the colours at the end of 1914”

He was also reported as killed in the Liverpool Daily Post on 12th September 1916: 

Killed. 

King’s(Liverpool Regiment) Hellon, 21814, J. (Liverpool); 

He was buried close to where he fell and after the war, when graves were concentrated, his body was removed and reinterred in Guillemont Road Cemetery where he now rests. 

Guillemont was an important point in the German defences at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. It was taken by the 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers on 30 July but the battalion was obliged to fall back, and it was again entered for a short time by the 55th (West Lancashire) Division on 8 August. On 18 August, the village was reached by the 2nd Division, and on 3 September (in the Battle of Guillemont) it was captured and cleared by the 20th (Light) and part of the 16th (Irish) Divisions. It was lost in March 1918 during the German advance, but retaken on 29 August by the 18th and 38th (Welsh) Divisions.

The cemetery was begun by fighting units (mainly of the Guards Division) and field ambulances after the Battle of Guillemont, and was closed in March 1917, when it contained 121 burials. It was greatly increased after the Armistice when graves (almost all of July-September 1916) were brought in from the battlefields immediately surrounding the village.

Guillemont Road Cemetery now contains 2,263 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 1,523 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to eight casualties known or believed to be buried among them.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

His Army pay and a War Gratuity of £8 went to his father William. His stepmother was awarded a gratuity in lieu of a pension.

In 1919 his father and stepmother Caroline lived at 22 Park Street, Dingle. In 1931-2 they were found at 329 Edge Lane.

His father was widowed again in 1932, and appears to have died in 1939, aged 68. 

Joseph is commemorated in the Hall of Remembrance in Liverpool Town Hall at Panel 55 Left. 

We currently have no further information on Joseph Hellon, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.