Pte 41813 Abraham Minton

Abraham was born in late 1885 in Benthall, Shropshire (about a mile south of the Iron Bridge), the ninth of eleven sons born to Isaiah Minton and his wife Elizabeth (née Clark).  His parents, both born in Shropshire, Isaiah in 1844 and Elizabeth in 1848, married in 1869 and had 15 children.

 

Four babies, Frederic, Mary, Ruth, and Stephen, died in infancy.  Of the surviving children, Abraham had older brothers Thomas, John, Isaiah, Samuel, David, Enoch, and Noah.  He had younger siblings Isaac, Martha, and Esther.  His father was a coal miner on the censuses in Benthall before Abraham’s birth.  

 

In 1891 the family is living in Bridge Road, Benthall, with ten children.  His father is a coal miner, Abraham is 5.

 

They are still in Bridge Road in 1901, with six children at home. His father, 56, is a night watchman.  Abraham is 15, a brickyard labourer.  A number of the brothers were involved in football and athletics.

 

Abraham and his brother were in trouble and appeared at the Petty Sessions in Much Wenlock in January 1903, published in the Shrewsbury Chronicle on Friday, 30th January 1903:  “Football on the Highway - Arthur Corfield, Richard Smith, Francis Bangham, Abraham and Isaac Minton, lads, of Benthall, were charged with playing football on the highway. - P.C. Davies said the lads were a nuisance and he had received many complaints. Bangham, who appeared, was fined 2s 6d including costs, and the others were each fined 5s including costs.” 

 

Abraham moved to Liverpool and joined the Merchant Marine.  In 1907 he is found on the crew list of the Majestic (White Star Line), age 21, address 265 Binns Road, Liverpool, earning £3 a week as a ‘sculler’ (in the kitchen).  He had previously served on the Ionian.

 

The 1911 census finds Abraham, aged 24, employed as a steward on board the S.S.Tunisian (Allan Line), docked in Kirkdale, Liverpool.  His parents with brother Isaac, 23, still live in Bridge Road. His father is 66, still working as a miner, his mother is 60. 

 

Abraham married Caroline Kermode, 23, on 3rd November 1912 in Emmanuel Church, Everton. He gives his age as 26 and his occupation as barman. They both give their address as 3 Empire Street.  They had two sons and a daughter, all baptised in Emmanuel Church:  Francis Abraham Cecil born 2/5/1913, parents living at 14 Dunkeld Street, father’s occupation  barman;  Frederick Albert born 4/3/1915, parents living at 17 Pear Grove, father’s occupation engineering labourer; and Doris Ellen born 2/3/1916, still in Pear Grove, father’s occupation now cotton labourer. 

 

Abraham enlisted in Liverpool as Private 41813, 19th (Pals) Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment. His service record has not survived, but from the War Gratuity and a later newspaper report, he enlisted (or was perhaps conscripted) in about July or August 1916 when the Pals battalions had suffered heavy losses at the Somme). 

 

It is not known when Abraham arrived in France but at the end of October 1916 the 19th K.L.R. was in the Somme region, and moved from trenches to billets at Bienvillers, in reserve, providing working parties. The War Diary records occasional casualties from artillery, and  occasional heavy shelling and aeroplane activity.  On 10th November the battalion proceeded to billets at Pommier for classes and training.  On the 16th they took over trenches from the 17th K.L.R. with casualties from enemy minenwerfer and were relieved on the 18th, returning to billets at Pommier. The Battle of the Somme officially ended on this date.  On the 19th the battalion took over trenches from the 19th Manchesters east of Berles au Bois. 

 

The War Diary page for the next few days is missing, but it records, on 24th November 1916:

‘Berles. In billets. Working parties found for R.E’s. 52252 Private Hickson F.O. and 21798 Wainwright H. were killed in action, 41813 Private Minton A, 21618 Private Riley C. 51681 Private Jefferies A.E, 21472 Corporal Carter, E., were wounded in action. All were of ‘D’ Company and were on one of the working parties in the frontline.’,

Abraham was one of the wounded and was evacuated to England.  He died of his wounds over six weeks later, at the Military Hospital in Endell Street, London, on 07th January 1917.

 

(The hospital, in Covent Garden, pioneered by Drs. Flora Murray and Louisa Anderson, was mostly staffed, including doctors and surgeons, by women.  They opened initially in Paris, then at Wimereux, and moved to London in January 1915. The hospital was recognised by the Army as a great success.)

 

Abraham’s body was returned to Liverpool and buried in a public (unmarked) grave (section 11, grave 43) in West Derby Cemetery on 12th January 1917. The burial record shows occupation soldier, address 13 Empire Street, and age 30. 

 

There are 111 Commonwealth burials of the 1914-1918 war and 129 of the 1939-1945 war here. Those whose graves are not marked by headstones are named on 2 denominational Screen Wall memorials. The graves are scattered throughout the cemetery in denominational plots. There are also 2 Foreign National war burials.

He is commemorated on the Screen Wall in the cemetery. Screen Walls are a type of memorial for Commonwealth War Dead, they are predominantly used to record the names of individuals who have a known grave but where it is not possible to erect a CWGC headstone or the exact location of the grave is no longer known.

 

His death was reported in the Liverpool Echo on 11th January:  

“Cotton Employee’s Death - Private A. Minton, K.L.R., of 13, Empire Street, Liverpool, whose death from wounds is reported, joined the colours about five months ago.  Previously, he was employed in the cotton trade.  He was in his 29th year.” (His name does not appear on the Cotton Association Memorial.)

 

His children were 3, 1, and 10 months old when Abraham died.  His widow Caroline, at 74 Empire Street, West Derby Road, Liverpool received his Army effects, a War Gratuity of £3, and a pension of £1-6s-3d a week for herself and three children.  Caroline suffered another loss when daughter Doris died in October 1918, aged 2.  Caroline remarried in 1920 and had a family.  In 1939 at the outbreak of war, Caroline is living at 35 Rothbury Road, Liverpool, with her husband and children.  Son Frederick Albert Minton, 24, is a metal press setter and operator. 

 

Frederick served in World War 2 as L.A.C. 1112966, 232 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.  He was captured by the Japanese on 29th March 1942 and died on 29th November 1943 aged 28.  His POW record notes, “Missing on board ship”.   29th November 1943 is the date of the sinking of the Suez Maru, one of the notorious Japanese “hell ships”, which was torpedoed by an American submarine in the Java Sea.  Hundreds drowned and the POW survivors were machine gunned in the water by the Japanese.   Of the 547 British and Dutch prisoners, one survived.  Fred is listed among the British casualties of the Suez Maru on the COFEPOW.org.uk. site.  Caroline was notified of her son’s death in February 1944.  Fred is commemorated on the Singapore Memorial.  

 

Abraham’s father died in 1928 and his mother in 1935. His eldest son Francis married and settled in Essex, and died in 1996.  Caroline, after losing her husband in WW1 and her son in WW2, died in 1946, aged 57.

 

Abraham is commemorated on Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance, Panel 25.