Pte 15700 Thomas Roscoe Johnson

In 1891 they are living at “Swanslow”, Woodend Park, Garston, with two children.  His father is an agent, cotton broker, Thomas is 2. Also in the household is his aunt Martha Roscoe, 21, and a cook/domestic servant. 

 

The 1901 census finds them at 42 Salisbury Road, Cressington, Garston.  His father is a cotton broker, employer, his mother is 35, Thomas is 12, Richard 10, Alice 9 and Michael 3. They have a nurse, a cook, and a housemaid living in. 

By 1911 they have moved to 16 Eaton Road, Cressington. His father, 58, is a retired cotton broker, his mother is 45, Thomas, 22, is a solicitor’s articled clerk, Richard, 20, and Alice, 19, are students. They have a sick nurse and three servants.  His brother Michael is not in the household.

 

Thomas completed a 5 year apprenticeship in November 1912 with Messrs Alsop, Stevens, Crooks & Co. (14 Castle Street, Liverpool), articled to R.J. Armstrong. 

 

Thomas enlisted in Liverpool on 1st September 1914, as Private 15700, No.3 Company, 17th (Pals) Bn, King’s (Liverpool) Regiment, giving his age as 25 years and 182 days, and his occupation as solicitor.  He is described as being 5’ 8 and 3/4 inches tall, weighing 138 lbs, with a fresh complexion, blue eyes and light brown hair. He gives his religion as C of E and his next of kin his father, John Johnson, at 16 Eaton Road, Cressington, Liverpool.

 

His brother Richard enlisted at the same time, as  Private 15740, 17th Bn K.L.R.  They trained together locally, then at Belton Park Camp in Lincolnshire, and Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain, before shipping to France, disembarking at Boulogne on 07th November 1915.  

A newspaper report states that Thomas served as a Lewis gunner.  

On 01st September 1916 he was granted a Good Conduct Badge on completion of two years service.

Thomas was declared Missing on 12th October 1916.
His death later assumed for official purposes to have occurred on 12th October 1916.   

17^th Bn War Diary:  Battle of Transloy Ridge –                                               

11-10-16 - Gird Trench/Gird Support – Battalion in front line and support trenches. British bombardment of enemy front line system commenced about midday.  Hostile shelling was intermittent throughout the day.

12-10-16  - Our bombardment continued. Enemy reply weak.  2.5 p.m. Zero hour. Attack on German front line system commenced.  Enemy wire was found to be uncut and attack was unsuccessful.  Hostile machine gun fire was very heavy and caused many casualties. Battalion H.Q. and Support Trench were heavily shelled throughout afternoon and evening. […] During this action all communication had to be carried out by runners and carrier pigeons as all wires were being continually cut by enemy shelling.

Casualties: 5 officers killed,  5 officers wounded, 38 OR killed, about 225 OR wounded/missing etc.

Graham Maddocks, in “Liverpool Pals” p.140, adds:

“As the whistle blew, the 17^th Battalion left its trenches to move forward.  […]  As soon as the attacking waves left their trenches the enemy artillery began to register on them, and at the same time, the defending infantry commenced a murderous rain of fire.  […]  Although their numbers had been depleted by the British bombardment, they were trained and experienced soldiers, well dug in on high ground, and for the most part, looking out on uncut wire.  As such, it was virtually impossible for them to miss the City Battalion men struggling to advance in the mud towards them.   The 17^th Battalion, on the left, was particularly badly hit, as its portion of No Man’s Land contained a slight rise in the ground, and as the troops emerged onto it they were silhouetted against the sky and became easy targets.  Those on the left of the attack, who managed to avoid the hail of bullets and make it to the German wire, then found that it was totally uncut, and thus trapped, they too became easy targets, to be picked off almost at the enemy’s will.  It was hardly surprising that, seeing the first waves being wiped out, some of the following waves turned back and made for their start lines. These lines were now packed with other waves of troops, however, and the fleeing men added to the congestion already there, and became easy prey for the German gunners.  There is some evidence also, to suggest that at this stage, the British trenches were also being hit by their own heavy artillery shells which were falling short.” 

Thomas was buried near to where he fell, and his grave marked with a cross.  After the war when graves were concentrated his body was removed and reburied in Warlencourt British Cemetery, Pas de Calais, where he now rests. His headstone bears the epitaph:

“DYING WE LIVE” 

Warlencourt Cemetery is entirely a concentration cemetery, begun late in 1919 when graves were brought in from small cemeteries and the battlefields of Warlencourt and Le Sars.  The Graves Registration form shows graves from “Le Sars 6/1, 6/2, Hexham Road, Seven Elms”.

Graves were brought in from the original cemeteries at Hexham Road (Le Sars), and Seven Elms (Flers), as well as over 3,000 British graves due to the fighting which took place around the Butte de Warlencourt from the autumn of 1916 to the spring of 1917, and again in the German advance and retreat of 1918.   The cemetery now contains 3,505 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War, 1,823 of which are unidentified.

Thomas’ name appeared in the list of Missing published in the Liverpool Daily Post on 16th November 1916. It is not known when his family learned of his fate. 

His father died aged 64, six months after Thomas on the 07th April 1917 (from headstone).  

 

Thomas' personal effects were sent to his mother on 26th May 1917: 1 Cig case & photos.  She received his effects of £8-1-11d, and a War Gratuity of £9.

 

In 1919 his mother provided information on Thomas’ living relatives: brothers Richard, 28, and Michael, 21, and sister Alice, 27, were living at home at 16 Eaton Road with their mother.

 

Thomas earned his three medals; his mother signed for his 1914-15 Star on 9th June 1920, but his Victory and British War Medals, sent later, were returned, no trace of next of kin. 

 

On 17th December 1920 Infantry Records wrote to Liverpool Police requesting assistance in locating Thomas’ next of kin, as correspondence concerning the disposal of his Memorial Scroll and Plaque sent to 16 Eaton Road had been returned marked ‘gone away’.  On enquiring in the neighbourhood and being put in touch with his father’s sister, Harriett M. Johnson, the police learned that his mother had moved away and her address was now “Brooklands”, Church Stretton, Shropshire. 

 

It is not known why or for how long the Johnsons lived in Shropshire, but by 1939 his mother Honora, with Michael and Alice, were at Hall Garth, Cockermouth.  Honora, 74, is living on private means, Alice is 47, no occupation, and Michael, 41, is a research chemist, retired. His brother Richard was married and living in Cheshire.

 

Richard served in France and was discharged from the 3rd Bn K.L.R. with a disability (gunshot wound to the left foot) in October 1917, awarded a Silver War Badge.

 

His mother died in Cockermouth in 1953, aged 87. 

 

Thomas is remembered on his parents’ gravestone in St. Mary’s Church, Thornthwaite, Cumbria:  


“... their son, Thomas Roscoe Johnson, who was killed in action in France October 12th 1916”

Thomas has a brief profile in the book, “Record of Service of Solicitors and Articled Clerks with His Majesty’s Forces 1914-1918” (printed 1920).

Thomas is commemorated on the following Memorials:

Sedbergh School Roll of honour

Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall, Panel 69

and also commemorated on a stained glass window in Newlands Church, near Keswick, Cumbria:- 

“To the glory of God and in grateful memory of all those who gave their lives for their country and rest in unknown graves and especially of Thomas Roscoe Johnson who fell in action in France October 12th 1916, aged 27 years.  Not dead but living unto Thee”