Pte 202905 George Henry Whittaker

• Age: 37
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• K.I.A Saturday 30th March 1918
• Commemorated at: Pozieres Memorial
  Panel Ref: P21-23

George Henry Whittaker was born on 17th October 1880 in Liverpool the son of James Whittaker and his wife Sarah Houghton (nee Jones). He was baptised on 28th August 1881 at Emmanuel Church, Everton. His parents married on 19th October 1862 in St Alban's Church, Liverpool.  

On the 1891 Census the family are living at 1 Mount Vernon View.
His father James 48 a joiner born in Liverpool, mother Sarah is also 48 and was  born in Liverpool. They have two children James 12 and George 10 both born in Liverpool. Also present is widow Mary Holloway 68 described as a boarder. 

On the 1901 Census, George is 20 years of age and single, a furniture upholsterer living with parents at Doddridge Street. His father James is 58 years of age as is his mother. George has an older brother James A. aged 22. Also present is Mary Agnes Calvert described as a boarder and her five children. 

George married Margaret Irene McMaster at St Bride's Church, Liverpool on  27th June 1906. The banns for their marriage had been posted on 27th May 1906 also at St Bride's Church, Liverpool.  

The 1911 Census finds the family living at 88 Avondale Road, Wavertree, Liverpool.
George is now 30 years of age and is employed as a general upholster living with his wife Margaret Irene who is aged 27 and was born at Peel, Isle of Man. They advise that they have been married for four years and have one child, their first born, Marjorie Irene who is declared to have been born in 1907 and is 4 years of age. 

In the March quarter of 1916 a second child Dorothy Louisa was born. 

He enlisted in Liverpool originally being posted to the 18th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment. Based on the amount of the War Gratuity, George served for just over a year, enlisting or being conscripted in early 1917.

He was serving in the 19th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 202905 when he was killed in action on the 30th March 1918, aged 37, during the German Spring Offensive. 

As Graham Maddocks points out in his book The Liverpool Pals, the CWGC records 38 men of the 19^th Bn of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as killed in action on 30^th March 1918 when as the Battalion diary below, shown in bold type, records that the men were actually out of the line and safely on the way to St Valery- sur- Somme.

The composite battalion moved off from ROUVREL at 8.30 am at 50 yards interval between companies, arriving at SALEUX at 3.20 pm where they entrained, detraining at ST. VALERY-SUR-SOMME the same night. The night was spent at ST. VALERY-SUR-SOMME.

Apart from those whose bodies were not found and are commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial all but two have burial sites at Savy British Cemetery, which itself is within a couple of miles of Roupy and contains most of the identified men killed on 22^nd March 1918. Therefore, it would appear that the date of death for these men shown as 30^th March 1918 is purely an arbitrary one and that they were in fact killed on 22^nd March.

George Henry has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial.

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.

CWGC records George's next of kin as: Son of the late James and Sarah Whittaker; husband of Margaret Irene Whittaker, of 23, Mosspits Lane, Wavertree, Liverpool.  

Grateful thanks are extended to Mike Redwick-Jones for permission to use the photograph of George Henry. 

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