Pte 52828 John Mawdsley

John Mawdsley was born in Southport in the spring of 1890, the son of John Mawdsley and Alice (née Anyon).  John, from Southport, and Alice, from Newton, Cheshire, married at Our Lady & St. Nicholas & St. Anne Church, Liverpool in 1874 and had nine children, all born in Southport:  Edithborn  in 1875, Arthur 1877, James William 1879, Frederick 1881, Alice 1883, Frances Mary 1885, Annie 1888, John 1890, and Sam Anyon 1892. 

In 1891 the family is living at 9 Boundary Street, Southport. His father John aged 36, is a general labourer, his mother Alice is 39, they have eight children, Edith 16, Arthur 13 an errand boy, James William 12 an errand boy, Frederick 10 a scholar, Alice 8 a scholar, Frances Mary 6 a scholar, Annie 3 a scholar, and John is 1. 

His mother Alice died in 1898, aged 47 when John was aged 8. 

His father remarried at St. Paul's, Southport in 1900 to Lucy Strongitharm, born in Hamstall, Staffordshire.  

 

In 1901 his father, 46, with second wife Lucie, 43, is still at 9 Boundary Street. His father is a labourer at the gas works, Annie, 12, is a domestic servant, John is 11, and Sam is 8.

 

When he was 18 John married Mary Stewart Strickland, 20, on 7th September 1908 at St. Peter, Birkdale.   John gives his occupation as engine cleaner and his address as 24 Warwick Street.  Their son John Eli was born on 19th December 1908.

 

His father died in 1910 aged 56.

 

The 1911 census finds him at 167 Hampton Road, Southport.  John is 21, a locomotive fireman (L & Y Railway), Mary is 23, born in Southport, son John Eli is 2.  Also in the household is his brother Sam, 18, a locomotive cleaner for the same railway company.

 

Their second son Frederick James was born on 7th December 1911. Both his sons were baptised in St. Paul’s, Southport. 

He enlisted in Southport and was serving in the 17th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 52828 when he was killed in action on the 12th October 1916 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.” 

John was declared Missing on 12/10/1916 and death later assumed for official purposes as having occurred on or since that date, he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France. 

The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916.

On 01st August 1932 the Prince of Wales and the President of France inaugurated the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy. The inscription reads: “Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.”

His sons were 7 and 4 years old when John was killed. His widow Mary, at 123 Banastre Road, Southport, received his effects of £3-7-3d, a War Gratuity of £4-10s, and a pension of £1-2-11d a week. 

 

Mary remarried in 1920 and had two more sons.  She died in Southport in 1967 aged 79. 

 

His older brother James William served in France with the Royal Field Artillery, was invalided home with concussion, and was discharged from the R.G.A. in 1919 with partial deafness.

 

John’s sons, John Eli died in 1980 and Frederick James in 1987.

 

John is commemorated on the following memorials -

Southport Civic Memorial

Hampton Road Congregational Mission, Southport.

Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Memorial (Victoria Station, Manchester)

St. Paul’s (now St. Peter and St. Paul) Southport.

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