Pte 15578 Edmund Rowatt

• Age: 19
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• K.I.A Sunday 30th July 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.

Edmund Rowatt was born in Waterloo, Liverpool on 20th April 1897, the son of David Crawford Rowatt and his wife Eleanor (nee Sergenson) who married in 1889 at Christ Church, Waterloo. His father was born in Glasgow, and his mother in Liverpool.  They had 11 children, David b. 1890, Robert b.1892, Marion b.1893, James b. 1895, Edmund, Eleanor b.1898, Crawford b.1900, twins Agnes and Stewart b.1901, Allison b.1903 and Jean b.1909. The family were wealthy tobacco merchants and his grandfather David Allison Rowatt was a partner in the firm Lyon and Rowatt who at one time held the only tobacco import license in Liverpool. 

The 1901 Census finds the family living at "Kenilworth", Waterloo Park where they have lived since at least 1891. They have seven children and four servants. Edmund is 3 years old. His father is a tobacco merchant, employer.

By 1911 they are living at 23 Esplanade, Waterloo. This is a 17-room house, with eight children at home, and five servants, a waitress, two housemaids, a nurse and a cook. Both parents are 46. David, 20, and Robert, 19, are both clerks for a tobacco merchant (in all likelihood their father), Marion, 17, James, 15, Edmund 13, Eleanor, 12, and Crawford, 10, are at school, and Jean is one year old.  

The family also owned another home in Gresford, north of Wrexham, as Stewart, 9, and his twin Agnes, and Allison, 7, are found at The Beeches, Gresford, in the care of their governess Ada Harrison and two servants, William and Katherine Holland, coachman and housekeeper.  Eldest son David apparently lived in the house after he married in 1913.

Edmund, like his brothers, was educated at Merchant Taylors School, Crosby, 1908-1914. He was the school record holder for the 1/4 mile (54.6 seconds) and represented the school at Rugby and Cricket.

He had only left school in July 1914 and enlisted at St George's Hall in Liverpool on 31st August 1914, joining the 17^th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 15578. He advised that he was aged 19 years and 130 days, in fact the was 17 years and four months old. He was five feet eight and half inches tall, weighed 140lbs, 38” chest, fresh complexion, brown eyes, brown hair and gave his religion as Church of England and NOK father David, 23 Esplanade. 

He was billeted at Prescot Watch Factory from 14^th September 1914, he trained there and also at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 17th 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. 

His service records show:

03.3.15-06.3.15: Rainhill Hospital with influenza

23.6.15: Promoted to the rank of Lance-Corporal 

23.8.15: At his own request, he reverted to the rank of Private

7.9.15: At Lark Hill missing parade at 2.30pm. Punishment, 3 days confined to barracks

07.11.15 Arrived in France

12.4.16: Sick to 55 Field Ambulance. Admitted with German measles to hospital and CCS

14.4.16: Isolation hospital at Le Harve, spending his 19th Birthday in hospital

28.4.16: Discharged to duty

30.04.16: Joined 30 I.B.D. at Etaples

He rejoined his battalion on 21st May 1916     

Edmund was killed in action on the 30^th July 1916, aged 19, at the village of Guillemont during the Somme Offensive. 

17th Battalion Diary 30th July 1916

The Battalion was in support to 19 & 20 Battalions K.L.R. 2 Coys. behind 19th & 2 Coys. behind 20th. Very thick mist. The attack was pushed home to the objective in places but in the main was held up by machine gun fire from hidden machine guns.

Fighting continued all day swaying backwards and forwards until by 6pm about 300 yards in depth had been gained & consolidated all along our front.

Casualties in the 17th Battalion were 15 Officers and 281 Other Ranks

Further details are reported in more detailed by Everard Wyrall in his book The History of the King’s Regiment (Liverpool) 1914-1919 Volume II 1916-1917

The 17th King’s had advanced (two companies each behind the 19th and 20th Battalions) in small columns. They too suffered heavily from machine-gun fire and were quickly absorbed into the waves that preceded them. They also shared the gains and losses of that terrible day.

When darkness fell on the battlefield the 30th Division held a line from the railway on the eastern side of Trones Wood , southwards and including Arrow Head Copse, to east of Maltz Horn Farm. On this line the division was relieved by the 55th Division during the early hours of the 31st July. 

The events of 30th July 1916 were regarded at the time as Liverpool’s blackest day. There follows an extract from The History of the 89th Brigade written by Brigadier General Ferdinand Stanley which gives an indication of the events of the day.

Guillemont

Well the hour to advance came, and of all bad luck in the world it was a thick fog; so thick that you couldn’t see more than about ten yards. It was next to impossible to delay the attack – it was much too big an operation- so forward they had to go. It will give some idea when I say that on one flank we had to go 1,750 yards over big rolling country. Everyone knows what it is like to cross enclosed country which you know really well in a fog and how easy it is to lose your way. Therefore, imagine these rolling hills, with no landmarks and absolutely unknown to anyone. Is it surprising that people lost their way and lost touch with those next to them? As a matter of fact, it was wonderful the way in which many men found their way right to the place we wanted to get to. But as a connected attack it was impossible.

The fog was intense it was practically impossible to keep direction and parties got split up. Owing to the heavy shelling all the Bosches had left their main trenches and were lying out in the open with snipers and machine guns in shell holes, so of course our fellows were the most easy prey.

It is so awfully sad now going about and finding so many splendid fellows gone. 

Edmund's body was not recovered from the battlefield or was subsequently lost as he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. 

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.”

Edmund earned his three medals, which his father signed for at 26 Preesons Row (which appears to be the family business premises).  His 1914-1915 Star shows his rank as Lance Corporal.

His Army pay and a War Gratuity of £8-10s went to his father.  No pension card has been found, suggesting that his parents made no application. 

Probate of his estate was obtained at Liverpool by his father. 

ROWATT Edmund of 23 Esplanade, Waterloo near Liverpool private 17th K.L.R. died 30 July 1916 in France Administration Liverpool 23 December to David Crawford Rowatt tobacco merchant. Effects £727 15s 8d 

His father also received his personal effects which included one compass, three coins, motor driving licence, one silver wrist watch broken, protector, note book, photo's and one cigarette case.

Edmund's loss was the second tragedy to befall the family in the month of July 1916 as evidenced in the Liverpool Daily Post, 21st August 1916, Page 6:

"Mr and Mrs D.C Rowatt, 23 Esplanade, Waterloo, have received official confirmation of the death of their son Edmond [sic], age 19, Killed in Action July 30. Their eldest son, David, age 26, who was a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery, was Killed in Action on July 1". 

David was commissioned through the University of London O.T.C. and arrived in France on 30th November 1915.  

David junior was twenty in 1911 and was working as a clerk to a tobacco merchant. When he married Saidie Harvey-Gibson at St.Bride's C.of E. Church, Liverpool on the 21st August 1913 David described himself as the Secretary of Rowatt & Lyon Ltd. Saidie's father, Robert John Harvey-Gibson, was Professor of Botany at Liverpool University. David and his wife had two children, David Lawrie Rowatt born on the 6th December 1914, and Alison Mary Rowatt born in 1916.

David rests at Peronne Road Cemetery Maricourt. 

Probate

ROWATT David of 18 Gambia Terrace Liverpool died 1 July 1916 in France on active service Probate London 7 September to Saidee Rowatt widow and Robert officer in His Majesty's army. Effects £6354 16s 11d. 

His son David Lawrie followed in his father’s footsteps and was commissioned in the Royal Artillery in WW2.

Edmund's brother Robert joined the 10th Bn. K.L.R. (Liverpool Scottish) in August 1914, (he arrived in France on 01st November 1914 and earned the 1914 Star, implying he served in some capacity before the war). He was commissioned in July 1915 in the 1st Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, and was badly wounded that December.  Robert had a son he named Robert Edmund, who served in WW2 with the Royal Welch Fusiliers.

His brother Crawford, born in 1900, enlisted in the R.A.F. on 05th November 1918.

The parents lost a third son within less than eighteen months when youngest son Stewart died of influenza in Liverpool on 25th November 1918 aged 17.  

In 1919 his father provided information on Edmund’s living relatives: sons Robert 27, James 23, and Crawford 19, and daughters Marion 25, Nellie 21, Nancy 17, Allison 15, and Jean 10, were living at home with their parents at 23 Esplanade. 

His mother died in North Wales in 1929, aged 64.

In 1939 his father, now 75 and retired, is living at “The Coppice”, Abbey Road, Rhos-on-Sea, Denbighshire, with incapacitated son Crawford, 39, a nurse and two servants. 

Sadly, Crawford died in November that year (an online site states from polio).

His father died in 1952 aged 87, having lost four of his six sons.

Edmund is commemorated on the following Memorials:

Merchant Taylors School Memorial, Crosby

Waterloo Rugby Football Club

St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Waterloo

Gresford Memorial, Clwyd

Gresford All Saints Church Porch, Gresford, Clwyd

Edmund and David were both keen cyclists and belonged to the Anfield Bicycle Club.  

The National Cyclists’ War Memorial in Meriden, between Birmingham and Coventry, was dedicated in 1921, attended by a large contingent from the Anfield Club, ‘To the Lasting Memory of those Cyclists who died in the Great War 1914-1919’.

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