Pte 26090 Matthew Clark Lang

• Age: 29
• From: Beith
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• K.I.A Tuesday 27th June 1916
• Commemorated at: Cerisy-gailly Mil Cem
  Panel Ref: II.K.23

Matthew Clark Lang was born on 26th March 1887 at Cross of Beith (Ayrshire), Scotland. His parents William Robert Lang, from Ayshire, and Georgina Margaret (née Clarke), born in Dumfries, had six children; Robert, Matthew, and William were born in Beith, while Jessie, Margaret, and Alexander were born in Glasgow. 

In 1891 the family is living in New Street, Beith, Ayrshire.  Father, William is a draper.  They now have three sons, Robert 6, Matthew 4, and William 1.  Both widowed grandmothers, Janet Lang and Georgina Clarke, are in the household.  They have a domestic servant, and a 15 year old boarder, a draper’s assistant.

By 1901 they have moved to 44 Albert Drive, Cathcart, Lanarkshire.  His father is a boot and shoe traveller.  All six children are in the home: Robert 15, Matthew C. is a 14 year old office boy, William 11, Jessie 8, Georgina Margaret 4, and Alexander 2, as well as maternal grandmother Georgina Clarke, 75.

It is not known when the family moved to Liverpool but his father died in 1909 aged 56, his death was recorded in the West Derby district of the City. By 1911 the family is at 68 Dorset Road, Tuebrook. His widowed mother is head of household.  His older brother Robert is not in the home. Matthew is 24, a draper.  Brother William, 21, is a porter, sister Jessie, 19 is a laundress, Margaret is a message girl, and the youngest child Alexander is 12. Also in the home is a boarder, John Alexander, from Glasgow, who marries his mother in 1915.  

Matthew enlisted in Liverpool in April 1915 originally joining the 18th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 26090.

On 30th April 1915 the 18th Battalion alongside the other three Pals battalions left Liverpool via Prescot Station for further training at Belton Park, Grantham. They remained here until September 1915 when they reached Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain. 

He arrived in France on 29^th December 1915. He joined the 30th Infantry Base at Etaples on 30th December 1915 and was attached to the 2nd Entrenching battalion on 07th January 1916.He joined the 17th Battalion K.L.R. on 17th February 1916. 

He was killed in action on 27^th June 1916, aged 29.

The British bombardment of the German lines, in preparation for the ‘Big Push’, began on 24th June 1916. On the 26th the German counter-barrage begins and inflicts quite serious losses on the 17th and 20th battalions.

The 17th Bn War Diary for 26th/27th June shows “heavy enemy bombardment of front line trenches.  Casualties: Killed O.R. 17, Wounded O.R. 57”

Matthew was one of those referred to in the diary who was killed in action on 27^th June 1916.

He was buried close to where he fell in Maricourt Military Cemetery and his grave marked with a cross.  The cemetery was at the south-east corner of the village, on the road to Clery. It was begun by French troops in December, 1914, and was known to the French by the name of Ferme Caudron.  It was taken over by British troops in August, 1915, and used until July 1916.  After the war when graves were concentrated his body was removed and reinterred in Cerisy-Gailly Cemetery where he now rests at Grave II K 25.

He was reported killed in the Liverpool Daily Post on 24th July 1916. 

Matthew is commemorated on the Memorial at St John the Baptist, Tuebrook. 

His mother Margaret received his effects; she died in 1941, aged 79, still living at 70 Dorset Road.

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