Cpl 18053 James White

The 1901 Census shows the family living at 20 China Street, Everton, with nine children. His father is 46, a cotton porter, mother is 39, children Thomas 17 a van lad, Lizzie 16 cigarette packer, Nellie 14 cigarette packer, James is 9, Annie 8, Charles 6, John 5,  Mary 3, and Margaret 5mths.  Also in the household is his uncle Denis Halloran, 20.

 

His father died in 1907, aged 47.

 

The 1911 Census finds the family at 37 Great Richmond Street, with all nine children at home. His widowed mother is 48, Thomas is 27, a carter, Elizabeth, 26, and Ellen, 24, are cigarette packers, James is 19, and works in the oil cake mill.  Ann is 18, no occupation, Charles is 16, a sugar worker, John, 14, is a messenger boy, Mary, 13, and Margaret, 10, are at school.  They have a boarder, Catherine Campbell, 20.

James was transferred to the 19th Bn K.L.R on 05th January 1917 and achieved the rank of Corporal on 14th Nov 1917. James would have seen action at the Somme in 1916, at Arras and at the Third Battle of Ypres, also called Passchendaele, in 1917.   

He was serving with the 19^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Corporal No 18053 when he was killed in action on the 28^th March 1918, aged 26, during the German Spring Offensive. 

The Battalion diary records the events of the day as follows:

During the morning the enemy attacked the troops on our right flank and succeeded in capturing ARVILLERS, menacing our right flank. Three companies of the Battalion had to be immediately echeloned backwards as protection, the Battalion engaging the enemy, who were attempting to come out of ARVILLERS. This position was held during heavy fighting until 2pm when the Battalion was informed that French troops had come into position in the rear. In order for the Division to be relieved the Battalion had to hold their ground whilst the 2^nd Bedfordshire Regt and 2^nd Bn. R.S.F.’s passed through on their way to the rear. At 4pm the Battalion commenced to move off in small parties, passing through the French, and marching through MEZIERES, MOREUIL to MORISEL where hot dinner was provided. The Battalion then formed up and moved up by companies to ROUVREL and were billeted for the night. By this time the total casualties had reached 23 Officers and 457 O.R.

James' body was not recovered or was subsequently lost as he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial in France.

The POZIERES MEMORIAL relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 4 August 1930.

James’ name was among those listed as Killed published in the Liverpool Daily Post on 16th May 1918.

 

James earned his three medals. His Army effects were shared by his sisters Annie, Mary, and Margaret, and brothers Charles and John (Thomas requested that his share go to their mother).  His mother Mary, living at 47 Great Richmond Street, received a War Gratuity of £17-10s, and a pension of 8/- a week.  She appears to have died in 1923.

 

He is commemorated in Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance, Panel 33 Left