Sgt 22452 John Lees

• Age: 29
• 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 Lees Hughes was born in Liverpool on 19th July 1888 and baptised in St. Peter’s, Liverpool, on 27th August, parents John and Catherine Hughes of Knotty Ash, Liverpool, father’s occupation painter, but the birth registration shows mother’s maiden name as Hughes. He was apparently the son of John Charles Lees and Catherine (née Hughes), born before their marriage. His father, born in Yorkshire, and his mother in Liverpool, married in 1889 and had eight other children. His siblings were Joseph, born in 1890, Ruth 1891, Walter 1893, George 1895, William 1896, Rose 1897, James 1900, and Charles 1904, all born in Birkenhead.

In 1891 John Lees, 2, is living at 487 New Chester Road, Birkenhead with parents John and Catherine.  His father, 30, is a police constable, his mother is 29.  His place of birth is given as Knotty Ash, Lancashire.  Their son Joseph is 1. 

In 1901 the family is living at 50 Livingstone Road, Birkenhead, with eight children. His father is a police detective, John is 12.  

By 1911 they have moved to 10 Park Road, Tranmere, Birkenhead.  His father, 50, is a Borough police detective, his mother is 48, John is 22, a pawnbroker’s assistant, Joseph is 21, a stationary engine stoker (ship building), Walter, 17, is a butcher’s shop assistant, George, 16, is an apprentice shipwright, and William is 14, a soap trimmer. Rose, 13, James, 11, and Charles, 7, are at school.   

Before enlisting, John worked at the Birkenhead Union Institution (Poor Law workhouse).

He enlisted in Liverpool on 05th November 1914 joining the 20th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 22452. He gave his age as 26 years and 150 days, his occupation as Poor Law clerk, and his place of birth Birkenhead. He is described as being 5’ 8 and a half inches tall, weighing 151 lbs, with a fresh complexion, grey eyes and brown hair. He gives his father, at 28 Whitfield Street, Birkenhead, as next of kin, and his religion as Church of England.

Formed in November 1914 the 20^th Battalion were originally billeted at Tournament Hall, Knotty Ash before on 29^th January 1915 they moved to the hutted accommodation purposely built at Lord Derby’s estate at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 20th 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 7^th November 1915.

His service papers have survived and show:

28/3/1916 appointed unpaid L/Cpl

26/6/1916 appointed paid L/Cpl

30/7/1916 appointed Acting Cpl

14/8/1916 attached Division school

03/9/1916 rejoined unit

22/9/1916 appointed Acting Sgt

22/9/1916 confirmed in rank

There appears to be a page missing in his service papers, however, there are 2 very faint lines recorded which show potential leave dates to the UK. 04th January 1918 - perhaps leave to UK with a return to his battalion on 07th February 1918. These are the likely dates of his return to the UK as he married Jane Elizabeth (Lillie) Nicholl on 27th January 1918 in St. Catherine’s Church, Tranmere. Lillie Nicholl was recorded on the 1911 Census as being aged 21, born in Kendal, and was employed as a cook in the Union Workhouse, Church Road, Tranmere, Birkenhead. We can assume John and Lillie met at their place of work. She was born in the December quarter of 1879 and was christened at Kendal on 16th November 1879. 

Following the disbandment of the 20th Battallion in France, in February 1918, John was transferred and was serving in the 19^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Sergeant No 22452 when he was killed in action on the 30^th March 1918, aged 29, 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 Bn 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. 

Mr. B. E. Kempson (relationship unknown) at The Grange, Bebington, Cheshire, contacted the International Red Cross hoping for information on John, but was notified in a reply dated 08th October 1918 that they held no records.

Notes on the pension card of the date 31/3/1919 and ‘Pres Dead 06/8/1919’ suggest that John was not officially declared killed in action until 17 months after he was reported missing.

John 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.

John earned his three medals. 

His widow Lillie received John’s Army effects and a War Gratuity of £22-10s.  The pension card, giving her address as 25 The Ginnell, Port Sunlight, Cheshire (the address of her married sister-in-law Ruth), shows she received a pension of 16/3d a week from December 1918. The pension card also shows her date of birth as 16th October 1886 but there are no births of a Lillian/Lily Nicholl in Westmorland of the right age.   

In 1919 Lillie provided information on John’s living relatives.  She was then living at 174 Kirkland, Kendal, Westmorland.  His parents and four brothers Joseph, Walter, George, and William, and sister Rose were living at 28 Whitfield Street, Higher Tranmere (the two youngest brothers James and Charles are not mentioned).  His sister Ruth Halewood, lives The Ginnell, Port Sunlight. 

His father retired after 33 years service with the police in 1919, and in a ceremony in June received a gold watch.  

John was honoured by his employers, reported in the Birkenhead News on 29th October 1919 under the heading:

Birkenhead Union Institution, Harvest Festival:

“The harvest thanksgiving service in connection with the Birkenhead Union Institution, was held in the private chapel, on Sunday afternoon, when a memorial tablet to the memory of two members of the Union staff who were killed on Active Service was unveiled.  Besides the inmates there were present a number of members of the Board of Guardians, also relatives of the fallen soldiers. [...]. The hymns were specially chosen and during the singing of “For All Thy Saints” the two clergy proceeded to the transept where the tablet which was covered with the Union Jack was reverently unveiled by Mr. Rowan.  The tablet is a handsome one of brass mounted on oak and is installed in the north transept immediately behind the pulpit.  The inscription reads as follows:  

“In memory of 

Raymond Eric Allen, Private, K.L.R. (Pals Batt.), killed in action at Guillemont, France, 30th July, 1916.

John Lees, Sergeant, K.L.R. (Pals Batt.), killed in action at St. Quentin, France, 22nd March, 1918.

Their names live evermore.” 

These men were both members of the institution staff, R. E. Allen acted in the capacity of ward attendant, and J. Lees as assistant porter.  Immediately beneath the tablet was placed a very handsome wreath of laurel leaves tied with the National colours with card attached bearing the words “Remembrance from the Officers of the Institution. Their duty nobly done.” 

John is commemorated on the following memorials - 

Men of Birkenhead Cenotaph

Cheshire Roll of Honour

(The present whereabouts of the Birkenhead Union plaque is unknown)

The Birkenhead Union Workhouse is now the site of St Catherine’s Hospital The main building was demolished in 2010 with the remainder following by the end of 2012.

Lillie Lees is found on the 1921 Census living with her mother Mary Elizabeth Nicholl in Kendall.

In 1939  Jane Elizabeth Lees, born in Kendal, is living with Nicholl siblings at 37 Holland Road, Manchester. Her date of birth is 16th October 1879.  

Jane Elizabeth (Lillie) Lees never remarried and died in 1953.

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