Pte 16540 James Moore

• Age: 19
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Saturday 1st July 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.

16540 Private James MOORE, 18^th Battalion KLR.

James Moore was born in Liverpool on the 16th November 1896 at 33 Earle Street, the son of James and Agnes Moore (nee Smith) who married at St Peter's Church, Liverpool on 26th May 1896. James snr was a 21 year old boatman of Union Street, father James, whilst Agnes was aged 20 of Earle Street, father Thomas Benjamin.

James was baptised on 08th December 1896 in St Peter’s Church, in the city. He was the eldest of 3 children, his sister Margaret Lilian and another child who sadly died in infancy. His father was employed as a boatman on the river, docking ships.

The 1901 Census shows the family living at Court House, 1, Union Street, Liverpool. His father, James, is aged 23, born in Liverpool in 1878 is a boatman, his mother, Agnes, is also aged 23, born 1878 in Liverpool and has no occupation listed. They have two children at the time of the Census, both born in Liverpool;  James aged 4, and Margaret Lilian aged 2. 

The 1911 Census shows James living with his grandmother at 3 House, 1, Union Street, Liverpool. His grandmother, Margaret Moore, is a widow aged 59, born 1852 is a gig boat owner who was born in Liverpool. James is now aged 14 and a draper’s office boy. His parents are still living next door at 1 House with daughter Margaret Lilian aged 12, now at school. 

James enlisted at St George's Hall in Liverpool on 03rd September 1914, joining the 18th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 16540. He gave his age, falsely as 19 years and 2 days, when he was in fact just 17 and his occupation as as a clerk. He was described as being five feet nine inches tall, weighed 118lbs, 35" chest, fresh complexion, grey eyes, brown hair and stated his religion as Church of England. His Next of Kin was listed as his father James of 3 Cottage, Union Street. 

From the 23rd September 1914 he was billeted at Hooton Park Race Course and remained there until 03rd December 1914 when they moved into the hutted accommodation at Lord Derby’s estate at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 18th 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 embarked for France with his Battalion on 07th November 1915, disembarking at Boulogne. 

He was amongst those of the 18th Battalion killed in action during the attack at Montauban on the 01^st July 1916, aged 19.

18^th Battalion Diary

At 6.30am the artillery commenced an intensive bombardment of the enemy’s trenches. Zero Hour – 7.30 am – the battalion commenced to leave their trenches and the attack commenced. The attack was pressed with great spirit and determination in spite of heavy shelling and machine gun enfilade fire which caused casualties amounting to 2/3rds of the strength of the Battalion in action. The whole system of German trenches including the Glatz Redoubt was captured without any deviation from the scheduled programme. Consolidated positions and made strong points for defence against possible counter attacks.

Graham Maddocks provides more detail concerning the events of the day:

As the first three waves began to move forward towards the German reserve line, known as Alt Trench and then on to the Glatz Redoubt itself, they suddenly came under enfilading fire from the left. This was from a machine gun which the Germans had sited at a strong point in Alt Trench. The gun itself was protected by a party of snipers and bombers, who, hidden in a rough hedge, were dug into a position in Alt Trench, at its junction with a communication trench known as Alt Alley. These bombers and snipers were themselves protected by rifle fire from another communication trench, Train Alley which snaked back up the high ground and into Montauban itself. The machine gun fire was devastating and it is certain that nearly of the Battalion’s casualties that day were caused by that one gun.  

Lieutenant Colonel Edward Henry Trotter wrote in the conclusion of his account of the day’s action:

I cannot speak to highly of the gallantry of the Officers and men. The men amply repaid the care and kindness of their Company Officers, who have always tried to lead and not to drive. As laid down in my first lecture to the Battalion when formed, in the words of Prince Kraft:

“Men follow their Officers not from fear, but from love of the Regiment where everything had always and at all times gone well with them”.   

Joe Devereux in his book A Singular Day on the Somme gives the Casualty Breakdown for the 18^th Battalion as Killed in Action 7 Officers and 165 men and of those who died in consequence of the wounds 3 Officers and 19 men a total of 194 out of a total loss for the four Liverpool Pals Battalions of 257.

A notice was placed in the Liverpool Echo on the 12th July 1916 following his death and that of a fellow Pal, William Curphey Watkinson:

WATKINSON, MOORE - William C. Watkinson and James Moore, members of Rector of Liverpool Men's Bible Class and Brotherhood.(Our first to go in 1914, and our first to be taken). 

When duty called, and danger,

They were not wanting there.  

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.”

James is commemorated in the Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall, Panel 18. 

His loss was not the only tragedy to befall the family as his father also served and died in the war. He saw service as Private 47121, 4th Garrison Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers. It is known he served overseas and died, from a Mediastinal tumour in the UK on 03rd June 1918, aged 40. He now rests at Anfield Cemetery.