Pte 26068 Edward Johnson

• Age: 29
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• D.O.W Thursday 13th July 1916
• Commemorated at: Peronne Rd Cem Maricourt
  Panel Ref: I.G.17

Edward Johnson was born 10^th January 1887.  His parents, Joseph Johnson, born in Bangor, Wales, and Jane (nee Stobbart), from Farlam, Cumberland, married in Brampton, Cumberland in 1883.  Edward was the second of five children all born in Liverpool; his siblings were Charles, William, Maria Ann, and Thomas.  Edward was baptised at age 2, together with his brothers Charles and William, in St. Peter’s Church, Liverpool, on 30^th July 1889, their parents living in Holt Road, and father’s occupation foreman.

In 1891 the family is living at 73 Albert Edward Road,his father is foreman of stables/groom,  Charles is 5, Edward 4, William 1; also in the household is brother-in-law Charles Stobbart, 26, bookkeeper.

By 1901 they have moved to 48 Smollett Street, Kensington, Liverpool where they remain. His father is a foreman horsekeeper.  Charles, 15, is a broker’s office boy, Edward, 14, is a printer’s office boy, William is 12, Maria Ann 5, Thomas 2.  

His father died in 1906 at age 54. 

In 1911, still at 48 Smollett Street, Jane, 51, widowed, is head of household.  Charles, 25, is a photographer, Edward is 24, single, a general printer’s engineer, William is 22, a grocery shop assistant, Ann is 15, Thomas is 12.  

Edward enlisted in Liverpool as Private 26068, joining the 17^th (Pals) Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment.

He trained locally at Knowsley, then at Belton Camp in Lincolnshire, and finally at Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain.  As his record has not survived, the details of Edward's military service are not known.   

The battalion was on the Somme front at the beginning of 1916, and in the front lines at Maricourt for the ‘Big Push’ on 01^st July.  Edward was wounded at some point during the Battle of the Somme, most probably during the murderous fighting in Trones Wood.  He died of his wounds on 13^th July 1916, aged 29, and he now rests at Peronne Road Cemetery, Maricourt, Somme.

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.

Edward’s effects went to his mother Jane at the request of his brothers Charles and William.  Jane received a war pension of 5/- a week until she died in 1922, aged 61.

Edward is commemorated on Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance, Panel 60 Right.