Pte 52032 John Robert Lawrence

• Age: 41
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• K.I.A Saturday 30th March 1918
• Commemorated at: Pozieres Memorial
  Panel Ref: P21-23

John Robert Lawrence was born in Liverpool in December 1876 and was baptised 20th December 1876 at Whitefield Road Chapel, Everton, Liverpool. He was the son of Isaac and Eleanor Lawrence (nee Clarke).

SDGW have him listed as James Richard, however, as CWGC record holds parental details and will have been provided by the family, these are the details we have chosen to record. 

The 1891 Census shows the family living at 93 Knowsley Street, Everton, Liverpool.

The father Isaac aged 62, born 1829 has no occupation listed and was born in Cumberland. His wife Eleanor is aged 42, born 1849 in Horncastle, Lincolnshire and is employed as a seamstress. They have four children at the time of the Census, John R aged 10, born 1881 and employed as a clerk. (This must be an error as he was in 1876 making him 15 years old), Eleanor aged 9, born 1882, Thomas aged 8, born 1883 and William aged 4, born 1887 are all scholars. They also have a boarder Martha Harrison aged 77, born 1814 in Stainton, Westmoreland. 

The father Isaac died in 1896 aged 65

The 1901 Census shows the family now living at 121, Empress Road, Liverpool.

Eleanor now a widow is aged 51 and has no occupation listed. She has five children living with her at the time of the Census who were all born in Liverpool, John 24, is employed as a railway labourer, Susannah aged 21 and Eleanor aged 9, are both employed as cashiers, Thomas aged 18, is also a railway labourer and William aged 14, is a plasterer’s labourer. She also has a boarder named Anne Todd aged 30, born 1871 in Liverpool and she is a waitress.

The 1911 Census shows the family have moved to 23 Cambria St Liverpool.

Eleanor is aged 62 and has no occupation listed. She has two children at the time of the Census living with her, John 34, is employed as a commercial traveller selling cattle foods and Thomas aged 28, is employed as a goods porter for a railway company.  

The mother Eleanor died in 1915.

He enlisted in Liverpool and was serving in the 19^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 52032 when he was killed in action on the 30^th March 1918 aged 41, during the German Spring Offensive. 

As Graham Maddocks points out in his book The Liverpool Pals, the CWGC records 38 men of the 19^th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as killed in action on 30^th March 1918 when as the Battalion diary below, shown in bold type, records that the men were actually out of the line and safely on the way to St Valery- sur- Somme.

The composite battalion moved off from ROUVREL at 8.30 am at 50 yards interval between companies, arriving at SALEUX at 3.20 pm where they entrained, detraining at ST. VALERY-SUR-SOMME the same night. The night was spent at ST. VALERY-SUR-SOMME.

Apart from those whose bodies were not found and are commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial all but two have burial sites at Savy British Cemetery, which itself is within a couple of miles of Roupy and contains most of the identified men killed on 22^nd March 1918. Therefore, it would appear that the date of death for these men shown as 30^th March 1918 is purely an arbitrary one and that they were in fact killed on 22^nd March.

John Robert has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial.

The POZIERES MEMORIAL relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 4 August 1930.

Soldiers effects to brother Thomas, sisters Agnes Bannister, Eleanor Metcalfe and Susannah Lawrence(Consul General in Boston, Mass.) and Richard Wilding for child maintenance

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