Pte 23989 Walter George Usherwood

• Age: 25
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 20th Btn
• D.O.W Thursday 13th July 1916
• Commemorated at: Corbie Cc Ext
  Panel Ref: I.C.29

Walter George Usherwood was born in Liverpool in April or May 1890, the son of Thomas Arthur Usherwood and Emma Louise Evans, both from Liverpool, who married in 1889. Thomas was the eldest of three sons, his siblings were Thomas, born in 1892 in Liverpool, and John, born in 1900 in Birkenhead.  Three daughters, Elizabeth, Florence, and Daisy, died in infancy.  Walter was baptised in St. Augustine, Everton, on 25^th June 1890, his parents living at 102 Vienna Street, and his father’s occupation painter.

In 1891 Thomas and Emma, with Walter, 11 months old, are living at 8 George Street.  His father is a house decorator.

In 1901 Walter, 10, and Thomas 8, and their father are living with their paternal grandparents, George and Dora Usherwood, and his widowed aunt Jane, at 43 Virgil Street, Liverpool.  His father is a paper hanger, and his grandfather, 70, is a house decorator/painter.  His mother is not listed in the household.

In 1911 his parents, with three sons, are living at 60 Potter Street, Everton.  His father is a paper hanger for a decorator, Walter is 20, single, employed as a porter for a clothier. His brother Thomas, 18, is an assistant labourer, and John is 10   

Walter married Gertrude Shelton on 03^rd May 1914 in St. Mary’s, Kirkdale.

He enlisted in November 1914, as Private 23989, joining the 20^th (Pals) Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment.  

Formed in November 1914 the 20^th Battalion were originally billeted at He arrived in France on 7^th November 1915.Tournament Hall, Knotty Ash before on 29^th January 1915 they moved to the hutted accommodation purposely built at Lord Derby’s estate at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 20th 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. 

Whilst at Knowsley, his son Walter Thomas was born, on 04^th April 1915, and at the end of the month the Pals battalions move to Belton Park Camp in Lincolnshire, and become the 89^th Brigade, 30^th Division.

After final infantry training at Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain, the battalion ships to France, disembarking at Boulogne on 7^th November 1915.  

In the new year the battalion takes up position in the south of the Somme line near Carnoy.  After specialist training at Abbeville for the ‘Big Push’, the battalion moves to the front line at Maricourt. 

On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the 20^th Battalion takes its objectives with 100 casualties of all ranks.  As his service record has not survived, it is not known when Walter was wounded but on 13^th July 1916 Walter died of wounds received in action.  

His place of rest, in Corbie Communal Cemetery, is behind the lines, which indicates that there was time to evacuate Walter to a casualty clearing station or hospital.

Corbie was about 20 kilometres behind the front when Commonwealth forces took over the line from Berles-au-Bois southward to the Somme in July 1915. The town immediately became a medical centre, with Nos 5 and 21 Casualty Clearing Stations based at La Neuville (the suburb across the Ancre) until October 1916 and April 1917 respectively. In November 1916 the front moved east, but the German advance in the Spring of 1918 came within 10 kilometres of the town and brought with it field ambulances of the 47th Division and the 12th Australian Field Ambulance. The communal cemetery was used for burials until May 1916, when the plot set aside was filled and the extension opened. The majority of the graves in the extension are of officers and men who died of wounds in the 1916 Battle of the Somme. The remainder relate to the fighting of 1918. The communal cemetery contains 249 First World War burials, the extension 918. The extension was designed by Charles Holden.

His widow Gertrude placed a notice in the Liverpool Echo on 26^th July 1916:  

“July 13, died from wounds received in action, Private W. G. Usherwood (Pals), the dearly-beloved husband of Gertrude Usherwood, of 47 Downing Street, Liverpool.”

Walter’s death was announced in the Evening Express on 2^nd August 1916, with the above photograph: 

 “Private W.G. Usherwood, of the Pals, and formerly a conductor on the Everton Church cars. His residence was 47, Downing-street, Everton, and he had lived in the Everton district practically all his life.”

And an In Memoriam notice on 13^th July 1917: 

 “In loving memory of my dear nephew Walter (Liverpool Pals), who died of wounds July 13, 1916.  (Never forgotten by his Aunt, Mrs. NcNaught, 52, Tillard Street.)”  

Walter earned his three medals; his pension and effects went to his widow Gertrude.  She remarried in 1920 to George Robinson, but by 1939 had been widowed again and was living at 22 Bankburn Road with son Walter.  Walter’s father Thomas died in 1917, aged 51, and his mother Emma in 1950, aged 80.  His son Walter was one year old when his father died; he married in 1940 and had two children;  Walter died in 1962, aged 47.  Gertrude appears to have died aged 78 in 1966.

Walter is commemorated on the following Memorials:

St. Athanasius C of E Church, Kirkdale

Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall, Panel 35.

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