Pte 50591 William Henry Birchall

• Age: 32
• From: Wigan
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• K.I.A Thursday 20th September 1917
• Commemorated at: Tyne Cot Memorial
  Panel Ref: Panel 31-34

William Henry Birchall was born in 1885 in Wigan and was baptised on the 28th June 1885 at Bickersttaffe. He was the the son of John Allen Birchall and his wife Ellen (nee Taylor), of the Stanley Gate Inn, Ormskirk Road, Bickerstaffe, Lancashire and was the husband of Martha Birchall, of 348, Crow Lane West, Earlestown, Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire. He had married Martha Rosbotham, formerly of Ottershead Farm, Westhead, niece of Sir Stanley Thomas Rosbotham, MP of Bickerstaffe on the 07th February 1907 at Holy Trinity Church, Bickerstaffe. He resided in Earlestown where Martha was a school teacher and prior to enlisting was employed at the Viaduct Locomotive Works in Newton-le-Willows.

The 1891 Census shows the family living at Stanley Gate Inn, Ormskirk Road, Bickerstaffe, Ormskirk, Lancashire. His father, John Allen, is aged 34, born in Bickerstaffe in 1857 is a farmer and inn keeper, his mother, Ellen, is aged 35, born 1856 also in Bickerstaffe and has no occupation listed. They have five children at the time of the Census: Thomas aged 10, born 1881, John aged 8, born 1883, William Henry aged 5, born 1886, Richard aged 3, born 1888 are all scholars and Margaret was born in 1891. Their children were all born in Bickerstaffe. They have six servants living with them, Esther Rawsthorne aged 21, born 1870, Esther Peet, aged 18, born 1873 and Elizabeth Rigby aged 13, born 1878 are all general servants (domestic) and born in Bickerstaffe. They have three farm labourers, John Morris aged 17, born 1874, Philip Rothwell aged 40, born 1851 both in Bickerstaffe and Michael McLean aged 33, born 1858 in Ormskirk.

The 1901 Census shows the family still living at Stanley Gate Inn, Ormskirk Road, Bickerstaffe, Ormskirk, Lancashire. His father, John Allen, is now aged 44, born 1857 is a farmer and his wife Ellen is aged 45, and has no occupation listed. They have eight children at the time of the Census; Thomas aged 20 and John aged 18, are listed as farmer’s sons. William Henry is aged 15, Richard aged 13, Margaret aged 10, Robert aged 8, born 1893, Deborah aged 5, born 1896 and Ben aged 3, born 1898. They have four servants living with them, Michael McLean aged 43 is a carter on the farm, Annie Leonard aged 25, born 1876 is a domestic cook, Caroline Dykes aged 16, born 1885 is a housemaid domestic and Ann Moss also aged 16 is a general servant (domestic).  

His father John Allen Birchall died in September 1904, aged 47.

The 1911 Census shows William Henry and his family living at Bee Fold Farm, Bee Fold, Atherton, Lancashire. William Henry now aged  25 is a farmer and his wife Martha is aged 26, born 1885 in Mawdesley, has no occupation listed. They have two children at the time of the Census, Deborah Ellen aged 3, born 1908 and John Allen aged 1, born 1910 and both were born in Lathom. They have four servants, Henry Lephton, aged 30, born 1881, John Houghton, aged 25, born 1886 are both horsemen on the farm. John Hampson aged 23, born 1888 is a cowman on the farm and Jane Peet aged 18 is a housemaid domestic.

He enlisted in Warrington and served originally as T/3/029861, Royal Army Service Corps.

Extract from Bickerstaffe Remembers website:

William first joined the Royal Army Service Corps, and spent the next three and a half years teaching officers to ride horses before they were sent overseas. As many of these officers had never ridden a horse before, they would give Private Birchall a 10-shilling note, (50 pence) to find them a ‘quiet one’. In this period, he spent 6 months in charge of a war department farm in Southern England. In July 1917 he was sent to the Ypres area of Belgium, where he met up with his Uncle Bob Rosbotham and wrote a letter home saying that they had had a drink together. Extract from Bickerstaffe Remembers website: By 20th September 1917, William had joined the 19th Battalion, Kings Liverpool Regiment as Private No 50591. It was on that date which, elsewhere on the Salient, was the opening day of the offensive, later referred to as ‘The Battle of the Menin Road’.

William was killed during the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele), in an early morning raid on two German blockhouses when his group came under heavy machine gun fire. He was 32 years of age. 

Details of the attack in which William was killed featured in the Battalion War Diary:   

19^th September 1917 – In support in Denys Wood.  Battalion relieved 17^th King's Liverpool Regiment in front line. Relief complete about 11 p.m.   

20^th September 1917 – A raid was carried out by a party of the battalion of 25 OR under Capt. C. Laird, just before 6 a.m. on The Twins. Enemy machine gun fire, however, proved too much for them, although several attempts were made to reach the objective.  Capt. C. Laird was killed in the operation, also 6 OR, and 14 OR were wounded.

Graham Maddocks in “Liverpool Pals”, p.178, explains:  

“The remainder of September was fairly uneventful for the rest of the Pals Battalions, except for two trench raids made by the 19^th Battalion on 20 September 1917, which, elsewhere on the Salient, was the opening day of the phase of the offensive later referred to as the Battle of the Menin Road. These raids were made for two purposes. The first was an attempt to confuse the enemy as to the intensity and direction of the main attack, and the second was to try to capture two blockhouses known as ‘The Twins’, which commanded the 19^th Battalion’s trench front, and thus was able to dominate all its movement. The raiding party, consisting of Captain C. Laird, and twenty-five other ranks left the British front line at 6.00 a.m. and moved into No Man’s Land. However, it was soon spotted, and machine guns opened fire from the blockhouses. Despite a most determined effort to carry the objectives, the situation was hopeless from the start, and Laird and six other ranks were killed and fourteen more soldiers were wounded.”

William's body was not recovered, or was subsequently lost as he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial.

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.

Soldiers Effects and Pension to widow Martha and children Deborah Ellen, John Allen, Phylis Margaret and William Henry.

William is commemorated on the following Memorials:

Newton Le Willows and Earlestown Civic Memorial

Holy Trinity C. of E. Church, Bickerstaffe.

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