Pte 51602 Joseph Edward Blackburn

• Age: 29
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• D.O.W Thursday 11th April 1918
• Commemorated at: St Souplet Brit Cem
  Panel Ref: III.BB.5

Joseph Edward Blackburn was born in Liverpool in the summer of 1888 to Charles Blackburn and his wife Mary Elizabeth (nee Ring) who were married on the 01^st June 1884 at Holy Trinity Church, Liverpool. Charles was a 29 year old engine fitter of 9 Queen Anne St, father Henry, whilst Mary was a 21 year old seamstress of 7 Queen Anne Street, father Nicholas. 

Their first child, Charles William, died at one year old.  After the birth of Joseph, by 1890 the family had moved to the northeast, where Mary was born in 1890 (and died in infancy).

His mother died, aged 36, when Joseph was 11. She probably died in the childbirth of son Charles who was born on the 02nd September 1899 but he sadly died 15 days later. Mary Elizabeth was buried at Anfield Cemetery on the 06^th September 1899.  

On the 1901 Census the children have moved back to Liverpool at 45 Louis Street, Everton with their father’s brother John C. Blackburn aged 41, a whitesmith, his wife Mary aged 34 and 4 children. Joseph(nephew) is 12 years old, Amy(niece) is aged 8 b.South Shields. Widowed father Charles was working down in London, boarding at 91 Bridge St, Hammersmith.  

The 1911 Census finds Joseph as a 22 year old labourer living at 51 Louis Street, Scotland Road, Liverpool with his 54 year old widowed father, Charles, who is a blacksmith. 

He married Fanny Williams when he was aged 27 in St. John the Evangelist Church on 22nd May 1916, he was employed in iron works, address shown as 13 Pickering Street. Fanny was aged 22 of 7 Pickering Street, father Richard. Their daughter Elizabeth Lilian, was born on 21st July 1918, just a few months after Joseph died.

He enlisted in Liverpool as Rifleman 4595 joining the 6th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment (The Liverpool Rifles). He embarked  on board the SS Invicta from Folkestone-Boulogne on 14th July 1916, he arrived at the 24th Infantry Base Depot on 15th July 1916, and proceeded to the 11th Entrenching Battalion on 02nd August 1916. He subsequently , proceeded to the 17th Battalion K.L.R.  on 05th August 1916 and posted on 05th September 1916 as Private No 51602.

Joeseph died of wounds, aged 29, on the 11^th April 1918 during the German Spring Offensive.

German POW records, held by the International Red Cross, show that Joseph was captured wounded (shot in the chest), on 11th April, and died the same day in a German field hospital at St. Quentin and was buried in the military cemetery there. 

CWGC records state he was originally buried in St. Martin’s Military Cemetery Extension, St. Quentin. After the war when graves were concentrated his body was removed and reinterred at St Souplet British Cemetery, France.

St. Souplet village was captured by the American 30th Division on the 10th October 1918. The American troops made a cemetery of 371 American and seven British graves on the South-West side of the village, on the road to Vaux-Andigny. A smaller British cemetery was made alongside. The American graves were removed after the Armistice and the seven British graves were moved into the British cemetery. Further British graves were brought in from the surrounding battlefield. There are now nearly 750, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, one-fifth are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 55 soldiers from the United Kingdom, buried in other cemeteries, whose graves could not be found. The cemetery covers an area of 2,504 square metres and is enclosed by a stone rubble wall.

Information from the pension card is contradictory.  He was previously reported wounded and missing and his death later assumed to have occurred (evidently before official ICRC notification) on 28/10/1918, with a second date of 20/01/1919. 

The pension card (giving Fanny’s address as 7 Pickering Street) also shows that his widow was notified of Joseph’s death on 21/08/1918, but crossed out and replaced with 25/04/1918. Nothing has been found in the newspapers to clarify these discrepancies.

Fanny received his outstanding Army pay and a War Gratuity of £10-10s, and was awarded a pension of 20s/5d from November 1918.

His father died in 1924 aged 69, and was buried in a public grave.

Fanny remarried William Henry Jones in 1923 and had a family.  

In 1939 Fanny and her husband were still living at 7 Pickering Street with daughter Elizabeth Lilian Blackburn, 21. Fanny is found on electoral rolls at 7 Pickering Street until 1963. It is not known when she died. His daughter Elizabeth married Sydney Jardine in 1940 and had a family, and died in 1983 at the age of 64.

Joseph is commemorated in the Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall, Panel 13 Right.

Grateful thanks are extended to Kevin Shannon the author of the book The Liverpool Rifles for providing details of Joseph's service with the 6th Rifles.  

We currently have no further information on Joseph Edward Blackburn, if you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.