2nd Lieut Norman Arthur Southard Barnard

• Age: 29
• From: West Bengal, India
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Saturday 8th July 1916
• Commemorated at: Peronne Rd Cem Maricourt
  Panel Ref: III.H.5

Norman Arthur Southard Barnard was born on 15th September 1886 in West Bengal, India, the son of George Southard Barnard and his wife Catherina (née Hewlett). His parents married on the 02nd February 1880 at Holy Trinity Church, Karachi where George was a station master at Sukkur. 

He was baptised on 03rd October 1886 in St Saviour's Church in Bengal. His siblings were Alfred, Alice, Edward, and Frederica who were all born in India.

His father George was born in 1855 in Chorlton, Lancs, the son of Troop Sergeant Major John Barnard in the 18th Hussars, Aldershot. 

By the 1901 Census the family had returned to England. Norman, aged 14, is living at 277 Walton Breck Road, Liverpool. His father is not present, mother, Kate Barnard, is aged 43, born in Kilkenny, Ireland, children Frederica Barnard 20, b. India.  Alice Mary Barnard 18, b. India. Alfred Barnard 17, apprentice electrical engineer, b. India, and Edward Barnard 8, b. India.   

There is no obvious trace of him in the 1911 Census and it is entirely probable that he was away on business in India. A passenger record exists for a Mrs K. Barnard arriving on the 12th Nov 1910 at Karachi. 

Name, Mrs K Barnard 

Sex, Female 

Travel Place, KARACHI, PAKISTAN 

Arrival Place, PAKISTAN 

Marital Status, Single 

Event Type, Emigration 

Event Date, 12 November 1910 

Norman enlisted in the Hampshire Regiment in Southampton on 24th December 1914 as No. 14541. At enlistment he said that he was a coffee planter and that he had previously served in the Southern Province of India Mounted Rifles. He gave his age as 22 years and 2 months, and was described as being 5' 8" tall, weight 153lbs. He crossed to France in 14th April 1915 joining the 1st Hampshire Regiment on 26th April 1915. 

His service papers show that he was admitted to 2 Canadian General Hospital  from 86 Field Ambulance 10th May 1915 with defective eyesight.

To Base 15/5/16 

Admitted Meerut Hospital 10/6/15 with German measles

Joined Base Depot 11/7/15 

Rejoined Battalion 14/8/15

To Cadet School 2/2/16 

Discharged to commission 18/3/16 and posted to 18th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment joining the Battalion on 26/3/16 then stationed in the Bray area of the Somme region in France.

Commission gazetted 01/5/16.

On leave to the UK 07/5/16. Rejoined Battalion 19/5/16. Attd 30 Div 28/6/16. 

Norman was killed in action on 08th July 1916. CWGC records show that he was aged twenty-eight, however it appears that he was 29 years of age. The Battalion took part in the assault on Montauban on 01st July 1916, with very heavy loss, and on the 08th July, it was moved up to Train Alley to provide carrying parties for the rest of the Brigade. This was probably because there were insufficient numbers left to man the line.

At about 5.30 pm, the Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Trotter, was visiting the 21st Brigade Headquarters in Train Alley, when the Germans shelled the trench. He was killed and the Commanding Officer of the 18th Manchesters, Lieutenant-Colonel W A Smith, formerly Second in Command of the 20th King's, was fatally wounded.

 Extracted from 18 KLR War Diary
 
 Oxford Copse/Train Alley/Briqueterie/Trones Wood
 7/7/16
 Moved to assembly trenches between Oxford and Cambridge Copse and bivouacked there. Battalion, about 350 strong, detailed as carrying parties for Brigade. 
 
 8/7/16
In the afternoon the Battalion was moved up to Train Alley Brigade HQ - Lt Col EH Trotter with the Adjutant and two orderlies moved up in advance and reported to Brigade HQ. The Colonel while seeing his Battalion up to their positions was to the great sorrow of all killed by a shell at about 5:30pm in Train Alley. Officer Casualties Killed Lt-Col EH Trotter DSO (Major Grenadier Guards), 2nd Lt NAS Barnard. Wounded 2nd Lt DM Griffin.
 
CWGC records show that he was aged twenty-eight. He now rests at Peronne Road Cemetery, Maricourt, France, in Plot Ill Row H, Grave 5, where his headstone bears the epitaph:

"HE DIED FOR ENGLAND"

Maricourt was, at the beginning of the Battles of the Somme 1916, the point of junction of the British and French forces, and within a very short distance of the front line; it was lost in the German advance of March 1918, and recaptured at the end of the following August.

The Cemetery, originally known as Maricourt Military Cemetery No.3, was begun by fighting units and Field Ambulances in the Battles of the Somme 1916, and used until August 1917; a few graves were added later in the War, and at the Armistice it consisted of 175 graves which now form almost the whole of Plot I. It was completed after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from the battlefields in the immediate neighbourhood and from certain smaller burial grounds.

There are now 1348, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, 366 are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 26 soldiers from the United Kingdom known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of three soldiers from the United Kingdom, buried in other cemeteries, whose graves could not be found.

The cemetery covers an area of 3,787 square metres and is enclosed on three sides by a low red brick wall.

His Soldiers Effects of over £47 and war gratuity £6 10s went to his father George Southard. No pension record has been found. 

He is commemorated on the following Memorials:-

Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall, Panel 15 Left

Parish Church of Holy Trinity, Richmond Park, Anfield, Liverpool

23 Company Boys Brigade Memorial, Parish Church of Holy Trinity, Richmond Park, Anfield

Collegiate School, Shaw Street

St Stephens Church, Ootacamund, India:- 

To the memory of  

Those Planters of South India  

Who gave their lives for the country  

In the Great War 1914-19. 

N.A.S. BARNARD 

Extract from the book: Liverpool's Scroll of Fame

An Englishman of the truest type fell when Norman Arthur Barnard was killed, leading his platoon into action, on the 9th of July, 1916. The "Pals," to whom he was attached, did some remarkably good work on the eventful day, though their losses were lamentably heavy. Nearly all of them had been volunteers young men who allowed no thought of professional advancement and personal comfort to distract them from the strict dictates of duty and no worthier example of this spirit could be found than that of the gallant officer of whom we are writing. Norman Barnard, who was British on both sides, was born in India, where his father held an appointment on the Government Railway. It was at Mussoorie, in the North Western Province, that he received his early education, and then he came home to finish it at the Collegiate School, Liverpool. He was a splendid scholar, as well as immensely popular amongst his fellows, and eventually he gained the coveted office of Prefect. But the East, which had a fascination for him, "called him back" when school days were over, and he returned to India in 1906. Like his father he entered the railway service, and at one time was on the rubber plantations in Madras. Naturally alert and perceptive, he wrote a striking article on the coolie labour question, and this was favourably mentioned in the "Planters' Gazette." Speaking, however, of his career on the railways, it should be noted that his reputation as a most reliable and capable official was recognised in a singular way. He was made head clerk of the Delhi Durbar Railway for the Coronation of King George and Queen Mary, and many will recollect that the administration of the railways was one of the marvels of the unprecedented visit of their Majesties to their great Dependency. No sooner had war been declared than Barnard tried to enlist, and it is a revelation of the mettle of the man that after rejection on account of eyesight his patriotic ardour urged him to try for better luck in England. Coming back, therefore, to motherland at the end of 1914, he succeeded in enlisting in the Hampshire Regiment. At that time men were urgently needed in France to stiffen the thin khaki line which was so gallantly holding up the hordes of invaders. So it happened that by the following April he had already crossed the Channel, and had taken his place in the firing line. He was a victim of the Germans dastardly gas attack at the second battle of Ypres, the defence of which was one of the finest achievements of the British Army. So steady and fearless had he proved himself in the ranks, that he was selected as a candidate for a commission, and, after six weeks at the training camp at St. Omer, he became an officer in the 18th King's (Liverpool Regiment). This was in March, 1916. The 18th was, of course, the second of the four City Battalions, and the entire brigade took part in the opening of the Somme campaign on the first of July, a month in which many a gallant son of Liverpool sacrificed himself in his country's cause. It will never be forgotten how grandly they fought, particularly on the 1st and 9th of the month, as well as on many other dates, and it was on the 9th that Lieut. Barnard fell whilst helping to sustain the honour of the Empire and of Liverpool. He was only twenty-eight years old when he died, but he had had a large share of life's experiences. His character was such that his relatives will ever cherish his memory, and especially that sweet and entirely unselfish disposition that revealed itself so often and in so many beautiful ways will always be remembered. Never did he allow the chance of some small and kindly act to pass; nor could the sorrows of others, whether in his own circle or not, fail to touch his own deep sense of feeling. Nobody could come into contact with his happy nature without being the better for it and he was an informing companion as well, for his travels and his wide acquaintance with the best literature of the world gave him a broader knowledge than the majority of men possess. Lieut. Barnard lived at 18, Buckingham Road, Tuebrook, Liverpool. Notwithstanding that he had been with the Liverpools so short a time he had done much good work with them, and the tribute of his Major was that he was "loved by all in his platoon." Liverpool is justly proud of its City Battalions, and it is only fitting it should revere those who sacrificed their all in the creation of such glorious records.  

George Southard Barnard, Norman’s father, served during WW1 – as Lieutenant with 184th Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers, and Indian Labour Corps. He was discharged with the SWB in October 1918 but took up a temporary commission a few weeks later as Sub-Lt RNVR as a clerical assistant to the Salvage Officer. He was demobbed 16th March 1919. 

His father retired from India aged 65 and went to live in Liverpool. Allegedly he could not put up with his wife's tantrums and went back to India. He died on 06th October 1921 whilst alighting from a moving train in Quetta, Baluchistan, India.  

Civil & Military Gazette (Lahore) - Thursday 13 October 1921 

DEATH.  

BARNARD. - At Quetta, through injuries sustained at Chaman, on Thursday, October 6th, George Southard Barnard, Asstt. Traffic Supdt., North-Western Railway, the beloved husband of Kate Barnard, of Liverpool. 

Probate:- 

BARNARD George Southard of 18 Buckingham Road Liverpool died 6 October 1921 at Quetta, Baluchistan India Probate London 1 September to Kate Barnard widow. Effects £292 6s 4d.  

On the 1921 Census his mother’s place of birth is confusingly given as Newcastle, Northumberland.  

His mother Kate, date of birth 04th December 1857, appears on the 1939 Register still at Buckingham Road where she is living with married son Edward and family. She died aged 82 in 1940. 

Her death was reported in the Liverpool Daily Post on Friday 18 October 1940: 

BARNARD—October 16, 18 Buckingham Road, Tuebrook, KATE, wife of the late George Southard Barnard (Indian State Railways). Service at Christ Church, Buckingham Road, on Monday next, at 10 a.m.; cremation Anfield Crematorium immediately afterwards. (No flowers.) 

Probate:- 

BARNARD Kate of 18 Buckingham Road, Tuebrook Liverpool widow died 16 October 1940 Probate Liverpool 13 January to Alfred George Southard Barnard electrical engineer. Effects £111 17s 6d. 

The photo of Norman is courtesy of the Imperial War Museum. 

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