2nd Lieut Robert Carswell Lee

In 1901 the family is living at 17 Wendover Avenue, Toxteth Park.  His father is a traveller (tobacco), Robert is 2.

 

The 1911 census finds them at 30 South Hill Road, Toxteth.  His father, 44, is a calendar traveller, his mother is 46, Dorothy, 14, and Robert, 12, are at school.  Robert attended St. Michael in the Hamlet Primary School and the Liverpool Institute.

 

The family moved to Wallasey, where his father died in 1913.

 

As his service record has not survived, the details are not known. Robert enlisted in the Manchester Regiment as Private 3/9365.  He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 18th Bn King’s (Liverpool) Regiment, published in the Supplement to the London Gazette on 27th August 1918, and attached to the 10th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers.  He arrived in France on 26th September 1918.

 

In August the 100 Days Offensive had begun, the Allied Push that would eventually bring an end to the war.  On 2nd November 1918 the 10th Lancashire Fusiliers relieved the 2nd Leicesters in the front line SW of Louvignies.  On 3rd November verbal orders were received that the Bn would attack and all preparations for the attack were completed, advanced posts being slightly withdrawn in order to escape their own barrage.  At dawn on 4th November 17 British and 11 French Divisions headed the attack.  The 10th Lancashire Fusiliers, part of the 52nd Brigade, took part in what became known as the Battle of the Sambre.

 

The Battalion War Diary records: 

positions) came down on the road.  FUTOY was captured at 0705 hours.  Hostile artillery activity was now increasing ... Coys reached the final objective at 0800 hours and immediately consolidated east of this line ... Whilst digging in Coys were subjected to heavy shelling from the left and desultory M.G. fire... The protective barrage remained for 30 mins to enable the 51st Bde to form up and pass through, followed later by the 50th Bde. 

Once the heavy opposition was dealt with, by the skilful use of the Lewis Gun and rifle fire, which enabled the position to be rushed and taken, the Battalion was able to advance to La Motte Farm, half a mile from Louvignies, having first out flanked and vanquished it’s defenders. This left the way clear to Futoy, and after the leading companies had overcome the defenders, the village was captured by 07.50 am.

At this stage, the Germans, realising the village was lost, began to shell it and the immediate area quite heavily and a machine-gun, firing from the direction of Pont a Vache, began to rake the area. Nevertheless, by 8.00am, all the Battalion’s objectives had been reached. 

Second Lieutenant Robert Carswell Lee was killed in action during the attack.  He was buried close to where he fell, and after the war when graves were concentrated his body was exhumed and reburied in Romeries Communal Cemetery Extension, where he now rests. He was 20 years old. The war would end in seven days. 

Part of the II Corps retired through this area during the Retreat from Mons in August 1914, and in October 1918, Commonwealth forces returned during the Advance to Victory. Briastre was captured on 10 October 1918, Belle Vue Farm on 20 October, Romeries itself and Beaudignies on 23 October and Englefontaine on 26 October. The Battle of the Sambre, the last great action of the war, carried the front forward into Belgium and ended with the Armistice. Romeries Communal Cemetery Extension is one of the burial grounds of those who died between these dates. The original extension is Plot I, made by the 3rd and New Zealand Divisions, and containing 128 graves. The remaining plots were made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from isolated positions on the battlefield, including (in Plot X) a few graves of 25 August 1914, and from small cemeteries, including:- BRIASTRE-SOLESMES ROAD MILITARY CEMETERY, BRIASTRE (Nord), was used by the 37th Division and the 1st Wellington Regiment (New Zealand) from the 11th to the 16th October, 1918. It contained the graves of 25 soldiers from the United Kingdom (12 of the 4th Middlesex) and 11 from New Zealand. It was about 800 metres South-East of Briastre, across the Selle. BRIASTRE CHURCHYARD contained the grave of one New Zealand soldier. BELLE VUE FARM CEMETERY, BRIASTRE, was 200 metres South of the Farm, which was almost immediately East of Briastre, across the Selle. It contained the graves of 16 soldiers of the 4th Middlesex who fell on the 10th October. BEAUDIGNIES CHURCHYARD (Nord) contained the graves of five New Zealand soldiers who fell on the 4th November. ENGLEFONTAINE GERMAN CEMETERY contained the graves of three soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell on the 26th and 27th October. GRAND GAY FARM CEMETERY, LOUVIGNIES-QUESNOY (Nord), was nearly 1.6 kilometres South of Louvignies. There were buried in it 37 soldiers from the United Kingdom, 24 of whom belonged to the 9th Duke of Wellington's. SALESCHES CHURCHYARD (Nord) contained the graves of three soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell on the 25th and 29th October. ST. PYTHON COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION was made by the 2nd Division. It contained the graves of 23 soldiers from the United Kingdom, two from New Zealand, and one from Canada, who fell between the 27th October and the 8th November. There are now 832 burials and commemorations of the First World War in the extension. 129 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 15 casualties believed to be buried among them. The extension was designed by Charles Holden.

 

His mother placed a notice in the Liverpool Daily Post on 28th November 1918:

“Lee - November 5 [sic] killed in action in France, aged 20 years, Robert Carswell, Sec.Lieut. Lancashire Fusiliers, only and beloved son of Mrs. and the late John M. Lee, 8, Sandon Road, Egremont.”

 

His mother received Robert’s effects and a War Gratuity.  She died in 1952 at the age of 90.

 

Robert is also commemorated on:

Liverpool Institute

St. Michael in the Hamlet Primary School

Liverpool Hall of Remembrance, Panel 65 Left

Wallasey War Memorial.