Pte 51986 Harold Venables

In 1891 his father runs a butcher’s shop in Brynteg, Broughton, employing a butcher’s assistant and a domestic servant. They have three children, Harold is 2 years old. 

At the time of the 1901 census they are found at Rhosrhenden(?) Farm in Broughton, where his father is a farmer and butcher.  They employ a general domestic servant and three farm servants: a milkman, a cattleman, and a yardman.  They have five children; Harold is 12. 

The 1911 Census shows the family living at 44 Rhosddu Road, Wrexham, Wrexham Regis, Denbighshire. Harold's father William is aged 55, a butcher, dealer, born 1856 in Gwersyllt, Denbighshire, whilst his mother Eleanor is aged 52 born 1859 in Llanrmon. They have five children all born in Broughton, Denbighshire. William Ewart aged 23, born 1888 occupation agent to a Correspondence School, Harold aged 22, born 1889 occupation butcher shop assistant, Eleanor aged 20, born 1891 is a school teacher, Robert John aged 18, born 1893 is a grocers assistant and Frederick aged 16, born 1895 is a schoolboy. Also living at the address is Jane Parry mother in law aged 83 born 1828 in Try Ddyn, Flintshire.

In February 1915 Harold was a witness at his brother William’s wedding. His brother Frederic died in June that year at the age of 20.

Harold enlisted in Liverpool and was serving in the 17th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private 51986 when he was killed in action on the 12th October 1916, aged 27 during the Battle of the Transloy Ridges which was part of the ongoing Somme Offensive.

17^th Bn War Diary:  Battle of Transloy Ridge –                                               

11-10-16 - Gird Trench/Gird Support – Battalion in front line and support trenches. British bombardment of enemy front line system commenced about midday.  Hostile shelling was intermittent throughout the day.

12-10-16  - Our bombardment continued. Enemy reply weak.  2.5 p.m. Zero hour. Attack on German front line system commenced.  Enemy wire was found to be uncut and attack was unsuccessful.  Hostile machine gun fire was very heavy and caused many casualties. Battalion H.Q. and Support Trench were heavily shelled throughout afternoon and evening. […] During this action all communication had to be carried out by runners and carrier pigeons as all wires were being continually cut by enemy shelling.

Casualties: 5 officers killed,  5 officers wounded, 38 OR killed, about 225 OR wounded/missing etc.

Graham Maddocks, in “Liverpool Pals” p.140, adds:

“As the whistle blew, the 17^th Battalion left its trenches to move forward.  […]  As soon as the attacking waves left their trenches the enemy artillery began to register on them, and at the same time, the defending infantry commenced a murderous rain of fire.  […]  Although their numbers had been depleted by the British bombardment, they were trained and experienced soldiers, well dug in on high ground, and for the most part, looking out on uncut wire.  As such, it was virtually impossible for them to miss the City Battalion men struggling to advance in the mud towards them.   The 17^th Battalion, on the left, was particularly badly hit, as its portion of No Man’s Land contained a slight rise in the ground, and as the troops emerged onto it they were silhouetted against the sky and became easy targets.  Those on the left of the attack, who managed to avoid the hail of bullets and make it to the German wire, then found that it was totally uncut, and thus trapped, they too became easy targets, to be picked off almost at the enemy’s will.  It was hardly surprising that, seeing the first waves being wiped out, some of the following waves turned back and made for their start lines. These lines were now packed with other waves of troops, however, and the fleeing men added to the congestion already there, and became easy prey for the German gunners.  There is some evidence also, to suggest that at this stage, the British trenches were also being hit by their own heavy artillery shells which were falling short.”

His name appeared in the list of Missing published in the Liverpool Post & Mercury on 16th November 1916. 

Harold's body was not recovered or was subsequently lost as he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.

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.”

Harold was initially declared Missing on 12th October 1916 and his death later assumed, for official purposes, as having occurred on that date.

His father William received his Army pay and a War Gratuity of £3.  The pension card in the name of his mother at 3 Victoria Terrace, Greenfield, Rhosddu, Wrexham, shows that she was awarded a pension of 15/- a week from May 1917.  Her address is later shown as 25 Ffordd Estyn, Garden Village, Wrexham.

His brother William was called up on 18th August 1916 to the Army Service Corps,  he served at home as Lance Corporal in the 87th Training Reserve Battalion and was demobbed in April 1919. 

His father died in 1929 aged 73.

In 1939 his mother, 80 years old, is at 121 Saxon Street, Wrexham, living with married daughter Eleanor, her husband, a school headmaster, and son, a university student.

His mother died in 1941 aged 82.

Harold is also commemorated in the Wrexham and East Denbighshire Book of Remembrance.  (He is not listed on the Broughton Memorial.)

And on the family headstone in Wrexham Cemetery - 

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF

HAROLD, SECOND SON OF

WILLIAM AND ELEANOR VENABLES

KILLED IN ACTION ON OCT. 12, 1916

AGED 27 YEARS

BURIED SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE 

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