Pte 59341 Joseph Millward

• Age: 19
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• K.I.A Sunday 28th April 1918
• Commemorated at: Tyne Cot Memorial
  Panel Ref: Panel 31-34

Joseph Millward was born in Liverpool in the summer of 1898, the son of John Millward from Herefordshire and his wife Levina (née Clark), born in Garston.  They married in 1883 and had ten children, five sons and five daughters, four of whom died young:  Elizabeth 1883 died at age 4, John 1885 died age 1, Eva 1886, Florence 1889, Lilian Annie 1891, Bessie Lauretta 1892, George 1895 died in infancy, Frank 1896 died at age 1, Joseph 1898, and William Arthur 1900. 

The name is spelt Milward on many records. 

His mother is found on the 1891 census, aged 25, when his parents were living with Eva, Florence, and Annie, at 20 Mona Street, a few doors down from her parents.  

His mother died in May 1900 at the age of 34, likely from complications after the birth of William, leaving his widowed father with six children under 13. 

At the time of the 1901 census his father, a dock labourer, is living at 10 Mersey View, Garston, with four of the children, Florence 12, Annie 10, Joseph 2 and William 1.  Eva, 14, and Bessie, 8, are in Garston with their maternal grandparents, Joseph and Susan Clark, at 12 Mona Street. 

In 1911 they are found at 3 Mersey View, his father, 53, still a dock labourer, Eva, 24, and Florence, 22, have no occupation, Joseph, 12, and William, 11, are at school.  Annie, 20, and Bessie, 18, are kitchen maids in Toxteth Park.

Joseph was educated at the Garston National School and was employed by L. & N.W. Railway Company, first as a telephone operator and later as a traffic department at Garston Docks, but sadly his name does not appear on the London & North Western Railway Memorial in Garston.   

His eldest sister Eva died in 1913 aged 27.

Joseph enlisted in January 1917 (when he was 18 years of age) in Liverpool joining the 17^th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 59341. 

He had served in France for eleven months and was slightly wounded soon after arriving in France, and later on, in hospital for sickness. He had been on leave at Easter and had just returned to his Regiment when he was killed in action on the 28^th April 1918, aged 19, during the German Spring Offensive. Details of the events are contained in the battalion diary:

By the 25^th April the battalion had taken up positions of readiness in the Voormezeele sector. According to the battalion War Diary, on the night of the 27^th, at 8.30 p.m. they moved to the line to relieve 4^th Bn, relief completed about 1 a.m.

28^th – At about 1 p.m. a company of composite battalion gave way on the left of our line and the Bosche penetrated from the Canal Bank to the left of my battalion front, which position he maintained despite 5 hours fighting. My reserve company was ordered to counter-attack and restore the position at 7.45 p.m. but enemy laid down a barrage at 7.43 a.m. and the counter attack was unable to proceed. The enemy bombardment lasted until 10.30 p.m. and I then organised a defensive flank.

Lance-Corporal Crowther notifying the sad news to Joseph’s father says:

“His loss is felt very keenly by all who knew him. He had been with me a long time and his willing and cheerful ways won him many friends. I was with him at the time of his death, and it may be a little consolation to you to know that he suffered no pain. It was instantaneous.”

Joseph's body was either not recovered from the battlefield or was subsequently lost as he is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium.  

Those United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after August 16th 1917 are named on the Tyne Cot Memorial, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war.

The Tyne Cot Memorial now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage and F.V. Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett on 20 June 1927.

The memorial forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which was established around a captured German blockhouse or pill-box used as an advanced dressing station.

Two months after Joseph’s death his father suffered further loss when Bessie died at age 25. 

His father received Joseph’s Army effects and a War Gratuity of £4-10.   

His father died in 1936, aged 80 still living in Mersey View, only three of his ten children still living. 

Joseph Milward (sic) is commemorated on St. Michael’s Church WW1 Plaque, Garston.

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