Pte 51618 Eric Waywell

In 1901 the family is living at 20 Wellington Street, Garston.  His father, aged 44, is a commercial traveller for a provisions trader born in Wirksworth, Derbyshire, mother is aged 45, Elizabeth is 16, Frederick C. is 15, an office apprentice, Florence is 9, Eric is 4, and Zillah I. is 2. His widowed grandmother, Elizabeth Bacon, 70, also lives with them. 

 

By 1911 they have moved to 33 Island Road, Garston. His father is 54, is a salesman in wholesale provisioning, his mother Mary is 52. They advise that they have been married for 27 years and have had 6 children, 5 of whom have survived. Elizabeth, 26, has no occupation, Frederick, 25, also works in wholesale provisioning as a clerk, Florence, 19, is an assistant librarian for the Corporation.  Eric, 14, and Zillah, 12, are at school.

 

His mother died on 07th November 1912 aged 53.

Eric worked for Francis Morton & Co. Ltd. before enlisting, engineers and manufacturers of iron and steel bridges, etc., with iron works in Garston, who made the ironwork for the Liverpool overhead railway. 

He enlisted in Liverpool as Rifleman 4655 joining the 6th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment (Liverpool Rifles). He embarked aboard the SS Princess Victoria, sailing from Folkestone-Boulogne on 15th July 1916, reaching the 24th Infantry Base Depot on 16th July. He proceeded to 11th Entrenching Battalion on 02nd August, and proceeded to the 17th Battalion K.L.R. on 05th August and was posted from 05th September 1916 to the 17th Bn  (C company) as Private No 51618.

The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he enlisted in late 1915, perhaps when he turned 19 years old.  

Eric’s name appeared in the list of K.L.R. Wounded published in the Liverpool Daily Post on 18th September 1917, during the Battle of Passchendaele.  

King’s (Liverpool Regt.) - Waywell, 51618, E.;  

He recovered from his wounds and returned to the front.  

He was killed in action on the 8^th May 1918 aged 21 during the German Spring Offensive.

The 17th Battalion were at this time in the Vierstraat Sector. the diary reports that the day passed quietly until the afternoon. The front line ran through Klein Vierstraat Cabaret. At 4.30 pm it was reported that the Germans had advanced and were now in " our original front line". At 7.10 pm A and B company's of the 17th Battalion were ordered to move forward in artillery formation from support line with object of co-operating with French troops who were advancing towards the enemy. At 08.10 pm the advance was reported to be going well on the left but nothing could be seen on the right. The situation at the end of the day was that the 17th Battalion were holding the line alongside several other units but casualties were heavy. Captain Norman Henry and Second Lieutenant Dudley Hammond Black were killed in action alongside 17 other ranks one of whom was Eric Waywell.  

Eric has no known grave and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium.

Those United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after August 16th 1917 are named on the Tyne Cot Memorial, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war.

The Tyne Cot Memorial now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage and F.V. Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett on 20 June 1927.

The memorial forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which was established around a captured German blockhouse or pill-box used as an advanced dressing station.

His mother’s In Memoriam notice in the local newspaper in November 1917 refers to “two soldier sons”. It has not been possible to identify which regiment her other son served with, or where he served.

 

Although Eric’s official date of death indicates he was killed at Ypres, records show that an enquiry was made to the British Red Cross on 2nd August 1918, stating Missing 23rd March 1918.  This suggests that Eric died during Operation Michael, when the battalion was in the St. Quentin sector. No International Red Cross records or other records have been found to corroborate this.  The pension card states Killed in Action, with no indication of his being Missing. 

 

His father placed a notice in the Liverpool Echo on 28th May 1918:

“May 8, killed in action, aged 21 years, Private Eric Waywell, the dearly-beloved younger son of Charles and the late Mary Waywell, 33 Island Road, Garston.”

 

His father Charles received Eric’s army effects and a War Gratuity of £10-10s.  His pension was refused.

 

His father died in 1933, age 75.

 

Eric is commemorated on the following memorials -

 

St. Michael’s Church, Garston

Garston United Reform Church

Duncombe Road Council School (lost)

Francis Morton & Co. Ltd. 

Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance, Panels 31 and 33 Right