L/Cpl 52111 Robert James Little

• Age: 21
• From: Manchester
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• K.I.A Saturday 30th March 1918
• Commemorated at: Savy Brit Cem
  Panel Ref: I.G.23

Robert James Little was born in Pendleton, Manchester on 27th September 1896, the eldest son of Nathan Little and Jane (née Bedlington). His parents, both born in Cumberland, married in Cockermouth in 1891 and had eight children, three of whom died young.  Robert had younger siblings Isabella, born in 1898, Elizabeth 1899 (died at age 1), Edith 1901, John 1903 (died at age 2), Ernest 1904 (died in infancy), George 1906, and Saran 1908, all born in the Manchester area. 

 

In 1901 the family is living at 11 Leigh Street, Pendleton.  His father is a tyre maker, India (rubber).  Robert is 4, and Isabella 2. The children’s place of birth is given as Pendleton.

 

He was a pupil at Embden Street School before attending St. Philip’s National Free School, Hulme, the family living at 8 Marsland Street.  He left school in September 1910, when he turned 14.

 

By 1911 they have moved to 15 Sheffield Street, Hulme.  His father is 42, a belting maker for a rubber manufacturer, his mother is 44, Robert is 14 (no occupation listed), Isabella 12, Edith 9, George 5, and Sarah 3.

 

It appears that Robert followed his father’s footsteps as a rubber worker. The Macintosh factory in Hulme produced waterproof clothing and other materials and during the war was a supplier of ground sheets, airship and balloon material, and waterproof garments.

 

Based on the amount of the War Gratuity, Robert served for three and a half years, enlisting soon after war was declared.  He must have lied about his age, as he only turned 18 at the end of September 1914.

 

He enlisted in Manchester and was originally Private 2163 of The Manchester Regiment and was serving in the 19^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Lance-Corporal No 52111 when he was killed in action on the 30^th March 1918 during the German Spring Offensive.

Robert was declared Missing between 22nd-30th March 1918.

 

His parents appealed for information in the Manchester Evening News on 25th November 1918:

“Lce-Corpl. R. J. Little (52111) 19th King’s Liverpool Regiment, missing since March 21.  Parents:  14 Freeman Street, Hulme.”

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.

Robert is commemorated in Savy British Cemetery, where a Special Kipling Memorial reads:

“To the Memory of these 68 British Soldiers who were killed in action in March 1918 and buried at the time in the German Cemetery on the St. Quentin - Roupy Road, whose graves are now lost.” 

Savy was taken by the 32nd Division on the 1st April 1917, after hard fighting, and Savy Wood on the 2nd. On the 21st March 1918 Savy and Roupy were successfully defended by the 30th Division, but the line was withdrawn after nightfall. The village and the wood were retaken on the 17th September 1918 by the 34th French Division, fighting on the right of the British IX Corps.

Savy British Cemetery was made in 1919, and the graves from the battlefields and from the following small cemeteries in the neighbourhood were concentrated into it.

There are now over 850, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, more than half are unidentified. Memorials are erected in the cemetery to 68 soldiers (chiefly of the 19th King's Liverpools and the 17th Manchesters), buried by the Germans in their cemetery on the St. Quentin-Roupy road, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.

The Cemetery covers an area of 2,555 square metres and is enclosed by a low rubble wall. 

His Army effects and a War Gratuity of £21 went to his father Nathan.  The pension card in the name of his mother, Jane Little, 14 Freeman Street, Hulme, Manchester, gives no details of the pension awarded.

 

In 1939 his parents are still living at 14 Freeman Street, with son George and daughter Sarah.  His father, 70, is still working as a rubber belt maker, his mother is 72. 

 

His parents lived through the Second World War;  his father died in 1950 aged 81, and his mother in 1951, aged 85.

 

Robert is commemorated on the Chas. Macintosh & Co. Roll of Honour.

 

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