Pte 15149 George McDowell

George was baptised in St. Alphonsus Roman Catholic Church on 24th January 1897, his parents then living in Cubbin Street.

 

In 1901 the family is living at 17 Randolph Street, Everton. His father is a carter foreman. They have three children; George, 4, Margaret 3, and Lillian 2.

 

By 1911 they have moved to 96 Medlock Street, with seven children.  His father is 41, a grain carter, his mother is 36, George is 14, employed as a cotton broker’s clerk, Margaret, 13, Lillian 11, John 9, are at school, Robert is 4, James is 2 and Thomas 5 months. Also in the household is Joseph Briggs, 27, a wheelwright.  Another child, Edward Haskayne, was born in 1914.

 

He was 17 and a half years old when he enlisted, lying about his age in order to serve overseas.

He enlisted in the 17^th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private 15149 at St George’s Hall on 31st August  1914. He was one of the Cotton Contingent who volunteered at the first opportunity. 

He was billeted at Prescot Watch Factory from 14^th September 1914, he trained there and also at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 17th 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 07^th November 1915.

George saw action on the Somme when he took part in the liberation of the village of Montauban. The next phase of fighting was to clear the area in and around Trones Wood which the Germans had occupied.

The murderous fighting that went on inside Trones Wood rendered it impossible to put specific dates on some of the casualties which is why many of the 17^th Battalion losses have been bracketed as killed in action between 10^th – 12th July 1916. The conditions are best described in the following passage from Everard Wyrall’s book The History of The King’s Regiment (Liverpool) Volume II. 

The remembrance of Trones Wood in July 1916 to those who passed through it is of a noisome, horrible place, of a tangled mass of trees and undergrowth which had been tossed and flung about in frightful confusion by the shells of both sides. Of the ghastly dead which lay about in all directions, and of DEATH, lurking in every hole and corner with greedy hands ready to snatch the lives of the unwary. The place was a Death trap, and although the attacks were made with great determination,   the presence of snipers who could not be detected and often fired into the backs of our men made the clearing of the wood impossible. 

George was killed in action during the fighting to clear the wood. He was 19 years of age.

His family like so many others must have been advised that he was missing folowing the action.

The Liverpool Echo of 11th August 1916 reported that George was Missing:

Private George McDowell, of the King's (Liverpool) Regiment is reported missing. He was one of the first 1,000 called for by Lord Derby being in the cotton section, employed by J.B.Thomson and Co.,Rumford-place. His parents Mr. and Mrs.McDowell, 96 Medlock-street,Kirkdale,Liverpool,would be grateful to hear from any of his comrades who may have seen him during the fighting from which he has not returned.

His body was not recovered and his name is recorded on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.

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.”

George earned his three medals.  His mother Alice received George’s Army effects, including a War Gratuity of £8-10s.

 

His father died in the September quarter of 1936, aged 72  and his mother in 1938.

 

George is commemorated on the following Memorials:
 

St. John the Evangelist Church, Kirkdale

Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance, Panel 20

Cotton Association Memorial now situated in Walker House, Exchange Flags, Liverpool.  

 

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