Pte 33175 Albert Taylor

 

At the time of the 1901 census the family is living at 34 Friar Street, Everton, with five children, Albert is 5.  His father is 42, an operative tobacconist, his mother is 40, and eldest sister Catherine is a cigarette maker. 

 

By 1911 they have moved to 72 Ullswater Street, Everton.  

 

His mother Catherine, 48, is head of household, married, but her husband is not in the household.  Albert is 15, a factory office boy. His three siblings work in a tobacco factory;  Catherine, 25, is a cigarette maker, Florence, 19, is a packer, and William, 21, is a cutter. His sister Catherine died two years later, at the age of 27.

 

His father is found in Nottingham, boarding with Ann and Joseph Tatham, at 100 Forster Street.  He is 52, an operative tobacconist.  It is not known why or how long his father worked in Nottingham.

 

He enlisted in Liverpool and was serving in the 18th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 33175 when he was killed in action on the 18th October 1916, aged 21, during the Battle of the Transloy Ridges which was part of the ongoing Somme Offensive.

18^th Bn Diary

18^th October 1916

Attacked German trenches commencing 3.40 am. Relieved by 19^th Manchester Regt. Took up position in support Bn trenches W. of Goose Alley.

Graham Maddocks in his book Liverpool Pals gives an overview of the events of the day:

“At 3.40 am the whistles blew, and the Battalion left its assembly trenches, in three waves, approximately fifty yards apart, and began to cross No Man’s Land. Almost immediately, the German Barrage fell on the first wave and halted its advance, so that the second wave soon caught up with it. This was not a great problem at first, and the two combined waves were able to advance together for about 300 yards, whereupon they encountered the German Grid Trench system. On the right of the advance, it was found that the wire was largely intact, apart from a few gaps, and the Germans bombed and machine gunned these gaps, which prevented any further progress. Elsewhere along the trench, however, the wire was cut and there did not seem to be any serious opposition. Nevertheless, the men hesitated to jump down into the German trenches, and instead, began to filter back across to the safety of their own lines.

By this time the third wave had caught up, as had a fourth wave, which had been detailed to mop up any opposition once the trenches had fallen, and all four waves became intermingled which added to the confusion. No less than three attempts were made to try to get the men to go forward again, but each attempt became markedly less successful than its predecessor, and eventually the attack came to a standstill. Although the British assembly trenches had received the attention of the German guns, the attackers in No Mans Land had not come under any great intensity of fire up until this point.

However, once it became obvious to the Germans that the attack was disorganised and faltering, they began to fire into the massed men from the flanks. It was probably this that finally settled the issue and convinced the Pals that they could no longer gain the enemy trenches, and all four waves, now merged into one, began to retreat to their own lines. The whole attack had been an abysmal failure, and no ground had been gained at all”.             

Albert was buried close to where he fell and his grave marked with a cross, but apparently his family were notified that Albert was missing. After the war when graves were concentrated his body was exhumed and reinterred in Warlencourt British Cemetery, 5 km southwest of Bapaume, where he now rests.

Warlencourt Cemetery is entirely a concentration cemetery, begun late in 1919 when graves were brought in from small cemeteries and the battlefields of Warlencourt and Le Sars.  The Graves Registration form shows graves from “Le Sars 6/1, 6/2, Hexham Road, Seven Elms”.

Graves were brought in from the original cemeteries at Hexham Road (Le Sars), and Seven Elms (Flers), as well as over 3,000 British graves due to the fighting which took place around the Butte de Warlencourt from the autumn of 1916 to the spring of 1917, and again in the German advance and retreat of 1918.   The cemetery now contains 3,505 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War, 1,823 of which are unidentified. 

His family were evidently informed three months later that he was officially killed in action. His loved ones placed notices on 15th January 1917 in the Liverpool Echo:  

 

 

 

 

Albert was remembered on the first anniversary of his death:

“In sad but loving memory of Private Albert Taylor, K.L.R., the dearly-beloved youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. R. Taylor, who was killed in action October 18, 1916, aged 21 years. (Duty nobly done.). Ever remembered by his sorrowing Father, Mother, Sister and Brothers (George, in France), 72, Ullswater Street.”
 

And again in 1918:

“In affectionate remembrance of Private Albert Taylor, K.L.R. (Pals), killed in action October 18, 1916, aged 21 years.

 

Liverpool Evening Express 18th October 1926 

TAYLOR - In loving memory of ALBERT, the dearly-beloved youngest son of Mr and Mrs R. Taylor, 18th King’s Pals, killed in action, Oct. 18, 1916. (Always remembered by his loving father, mother, sister and brothers, 72 Ullswater Street, Everton. 

His father died in 1929 aged 71, and his mother in 1934 aged 73, still living in Ullswater Street.