Pte 51951 Fred Longshaw

• Age: 35
• From: Warrington, Cheshire
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• K.I.A Thursday 12th October 1916
• Commemorated at: Warlencourt Brit Cem
  Panel Ref: VI.B.2

The 1911 Census shows the family living at Lynhurst, Thelwall Road, Latchford Warrington. His widowed father John is aged 64, born 1847, still working as a joiner. He has three children at the address all born in Warrington. John William aged 33, born 1878 is a joiner, Fred now aged 30, is a Commercial Clerk and May aged 24, born 1887.

In the October quarter of 1911 his father, John, now aged 64 remarried to a 55 year old Emily Seed at at St Paul's Church, Warrington. 

The Widnes Examiner of 13th March 1915 reports Fred Longshaw received a Red-Cross first aid certificate at Raddon Court Red Cross Hospital. 

Fred enlisted in Liverpool, the photograph of Fred, shown on this site suggests that he originally joined the 10th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment before transferring to the 17th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 51951  

He was killed in action on the 12th October 1916, aged 35, during the Battle of the Transloy Ridges which was part of the ongoing Somme Offensive.

17^th Bn War Diary:  Battle of Transloy Ridge –                                               

11-10-16 - Gird Trench/Gird Support – Battalion in front line and support trenches. British bombardment of enemy front line system commenced about midday.  Hostile shelling was intermittent throughout the day.

12-10-16  - Our bombardment continued. Enemy reply weak.  2.5 p.m. Zero hour. Attack on German front line system commenced.  Enemy wire was found to be uncut and attack was unsuccessful.  Hostile machine gun fire was very heavy and caused many casualties. Battalion H.Q. and Support Trench were heavily shelled throughout afternoon and evening. […] During this action all communication had to be carried out by runners and carrier pigeons as all wires were being continually cut by enemy shelling.

Casualties: 5 officers killed,  5 officers wounded, 38 OR killed, about 225 OR wounded/missing etc.

Graham Maddocks, in “Liverpool Pals” p.140, adds:

“As the whistle blew, the 17^th Battalion left its trenches to move forward.  […]  As soon as the attacking waves left their trenches the enemy artillery began to register on them, and at the same time, the defending infantry commenced a murderous rain of fire.  […]  Although their numbers had been depleted by the British bombardment, they were trained and experienced soldiers, well dug in on high ground, and for the most part, looking out on uncut wire.  As such, it was virtually impossible for them to miss the City Battalion men struggling to advance in the mud towards them.   The 17^th Battalion, on the left, was particularly badly hit, as its portion of No Man’s Land contained a slight rise in the ground, and as the troops emerged onto it they were silhouetted against the sky and became easy targets.  Those on the left of the attack, who managed to avoid the hail of bullets and make it to the German wire, then found that it was totally uncut, and thus trapped, they too became easy targets, to be picked off almost at the enemy’s will.  It was hardly surprising that, seeing the first waves being wiped out, some of the following waves turned back and made for their start lines. These lines were now packed with other waves of troops, however, and the fleeing men added to the congestion already there, and became easy prey for the German gunners.  There is some evidence also, to suggest that at this stage, the British trenches were also being hit by their own heavy artillery shells which were falling short.”

 Fred now rests at Warlencourt British Cemetery, France where his headstone bears the epitaph:

“IN LOVING REMEMBRANCE”

Warlencourt Cemetery is entirely a concentration cemetery, begun late in 1919 when graves were brought in from small cemeteries and the battlefields of Warlencourt and Le Sars.  The Graves Registration form shows graves from “Le Sars 6/1, 6/2, Hexham Road, Seven Elms”.

Graves were brought in from the original cemeteries at Hexham Road (Le Sars), and Seven Elms (Flers), as well as over 3,000 British graves due to the fighting which took place around the Butte de Warlencourt from the autumn of 1916 to the spring of 1917, and again in the German advance and retreat of 1918.   The cemetery now contains 3,505 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War, 1,823 of which are unidentified.

On 26th February 1917 his elder brother Thomas Longshaw enlisted as Pte 129235 in the Labour Corp but because of his Bronchitis was discharged on 13 December 1917 as unfit. He died at home in March 1919.