Pte 50697 John Nuttall

• Age: 19
• From: Middleton, Lancs
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• D.O.W Thursday 18th October 1917
• Commemorated at: Outtersteene Cc Ext, Bailleul
  Panel Ref: II.A.1

John Nuttall was born 1898 at Middleton and was the son of George and Emma Nuttall, of 74, Brassey Street, Middleton, Manchester.

The 1911 Census shows the family living at 74 Brassey Street, Midleton. His father George aged 38, born in Middleton in 1873 is a farm labourer, his mother, Emma is aged 34, born 1877 also in Middleton as were all their children. They have been married for thirteen years and had seven children of which one died. There are six children in the household at the time of the Census; Jonathan aged 12, born 1899, Elsie aged 10, born 1901, Lena aged 8, born 1903, George aged 7, born 1904, Albert aged 3, born 1908 and Hilda aged 2, born 1909.

He enlisted in Middleton and was serving in the 17th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 50697 when he died of wounds on the 18th October 1917, aged 19 during the Third Battle of Ypres.

He now lies in Outtersteene Communal Cemetery Extension, Bailleul, Belgium. The Inscription on his headstone reads:

“AT REST”

Outtersteene was captured by the III Corps on 13 October 1914 but no Commonwealth burials took place there for nearly three years. In August 1917, during the Third Battle of Ypres, the 2nd, 53rd and 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Stations came to Outtersteene, and the first and last of these remained until March 1918. The hamlet was captured by the Germans on 12 April 1918, and retaken by the 9th, 29th and 31st Divisions, with the ridge beyond it, on 18 and 19 August, but the cemetery was not used again during hostilities. After the Armistice, over 900 graves of 1914 and 1918 were brought into Plots I, II and IV from the battlefields surrounding Outtersteene and from certain small cemeteries. In the Extension, on the East side of the Communal Cemetery, were buried 17 soldiers from the United Kingdom and one from Australia, who fell in August and September 1918. 1,147 German graves were initially concentrated into Plot III. These were later removed to Steenwerck German Cemetery. The extension was used again in 1940, for the burial of those killed in the fighting which covered the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force to Dunkirk. Outtersteene Communal Cemetery Extension now contains 1,393 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 499 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 14 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Second World War burials number 72, of which 23 are unidentified. The extension was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

He is also commemorated on the Middleton War Memorial.

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