Pte 37849 William Henry Roberts

William Henry was born in the March quarter of 1890, the son of David Roberts and Mary Ann (née Smith). His parents, both from Liverpool, married in 1875 at St Peter's Church, Liverpool  and had 14 children, only six of whom are found on censuses.

 

Thomas, Charles, and John were born in Liverpool, then by 1888 they had moved to Widnes, where Sarah Alice and William were born, and returned to Liverpool by 1898, where Ethel was born.

 

In 1891 the family is living at 97 Pear Street, Widnes, where his father is an alkali labourer.  They have five children, William is one year old.

Many labourers were attracted to Widnes for jobs.  The first chemical factory in Widnes was built in 1847, and other industries developed, including iron and copper works. The town became heavily polluted with smoke and the by- products of the chemical processes.  In 1888 the town was described as "the dirtiest, ugliest and most depressing town in England" and in 1905 as a "poisonous hell-town".  In 1890 the chemical companies making alkali by the Leblanc process combined to form the United Alkali Company, later one of the constituent companies of I.C.I. However, during the 1890s the chemical business in Widnes went into decline as more efficient methods of making alkali were developed elsewhere. 

By 1898 the family have returned to Liverpool and in 1901 are living at 20 Dalton Street, Edge Hill with five children at home. William's father is 46, a plasterer’s labourer, as are his older brothers Charles and John.  His mother is 42, William is 11.

 

The 1911 census finds them at 2 Woodbine Grove, West Derby Road.  His father, 56, is still working as a plasterer’s labourer, his mother is 53, Charles, 29, is a general labourer, William 21, works in a drapery warehouse, Sarah, 23, is a cafe waitress, and Ethel, 12, is at school.  They state seven of their 14 children are still alive.

 

When he was 23, William married Florence Mary Wood, age 20, on 4th January 1914 in St. Simon’s, Liverpool, giving his address as 9 Bridport Street, and his occupation as warehouse packer.  Their daughter Florence May was born on 1st June 1914.

 

He enlisted in Liverpool originally joining the 20th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 37849. The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he served for two years, enlisting in about March 1916. He transferred to the 19th Bn K.L.R.,  most likely when the 20th battalion was disbanded in France in February 1918. 

William was initially declared Missing between 22nd-30th March 1918.  

 

His name was published in the list of Missing in the Weekly Casualty List on 4th June 1918.

 

His wife appealed for information in the Missing -  Information Wanted column of the  Liverpool Echo on 5th June 1918 :

“Private W. H. Roberts, 37849, 6th Platoon, King’s Liverpool Regiment March 22-30.  Information gratefully received by his Wife, 40 Bodmin Road, Walton.”

 

A notation in the pension card appears to show that Florence was notified officially on 4th November 1918, just one week before the end of the war, that her husband had been killed in action.

His death was presumed for official purposes to have taken place on 30^th March 1918 during the German Spring Offensive.

As Graham Maddocks points out in his book The Liverpool Pals, the CWGC records 38 men of the 19^th Bn of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as killed in action on 30^th March 1918 when as the Battalion diary below, shown in bold type, records that the men were actually out of the line and safely on the way to St Valery- sur- Somme.

The composite battalion moved off from ROUVREL at 8.30 am at 50 yards interval between companies, arriving at SALEUX at 3.20 pm where they entrained, detraining at ST. VALERY-SUR-SOMME the same night. The night was spent at ST. VALERY-SUR-SOMME.

Apart from those whose bodies were not found and are commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial all but two have burial sites at Savy British Cemetery, which itself is within a couple of miles of Roupy and contains most of the identified men killed on 22^nd March 1918. Therefore, it would appear that the date of death for these men shown as 30^th March 1918 is purely an arbitrary one and that they were in fact killed on 22^nd March.

William Henry is commemorated in Savy British Cemetery, where a Special Kipling Memorial reads:

“To the Memory of these 68 British Soldiers who were killed in action in March 1918 and buried at the time in the German Cemetery on the St. Quentin - Roupy Road, whose graves are now lost.”

Savy was taken by the 32nd Division on the 1st April 1917, after hard fighting, and Savy Wood on the 2nd. On the 21st March 1918 Savy and Roupy were successfully defended by the 30th Division, but the line was withdrawn after nightfall. The village and the wood were retaken on the 17th September 1918 by the 34th French Division, fighting on the right of the British IX Corps.

Savy British Cemetery was made in 1919, and the graves from the battlefields and from the following small cemeteries in the neighbourhood were concentrated into it.

There are now over 850, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, more than half are unidentified. Memorials are erected in the cemetery to 68 soldiers (chiefly of the 19th King's Liverpools and the 17th Manchesters), buried by the Germans in their cemetery on the St. Quentin-Roupy road, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.

The Cemetery covers an area of 2,555 square metres and is enclosed by a low rubble wall.

His widow Florence received William’s Army effects and a War Gratuity of £11.  The pension card shows that Florence, living at 40 Bodmin Road, City Road, Walton, Liverpool, was awarded a pension of £1-0s-5d a week for herself and child from December 1918.  The eligibility for a pension appears to be questioned as a notation on the card shows, “Sent to B.B. 7/4/1919 A.P. refused” but a decision on 11/4/1919 shows the pension was awarded.

 

Florence married Walter Cowan in 1923 and later lived at 95 Adelaide Road, Kensington, Liverpool.  She had a son who died in infancy.  It is not known what became of Florence or his daughter.

 

W. H. Roberts is commemorated on the following Memorials:

The Cotton Association Memorial, Walker House, Exchange Falgs, Liverpool

St. Luke’s Evangelical Church, Walton

Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall, Panel 44 Left.