Pte 51582 Ernest Austin Williams

Ernest Austin Williams was born in New Brighton, Cheshire, in the spring of 1897, the son of Stanfield Berkley Williams and his wife Elizabeth (née Gilks).  His father, born in Liverpool, and his mother, born in Warrington, married in 1891 in Toxteth Park.  His father had lived and worked as an iron monger in the Isle of Man for some years before their marriage. Ernest was baptised in New Brighton on the 23rd May 1897, his parents address 27 Prescot Street. . 

Their first child, Stanfield Robert de Pierpoint Williams, was born in Warrington in 1891 but died at age 1, when the family were living in Toxteth Park. Another son, Beresford Leslie, was born in 1895 in Toxteth, after which they moved to New Brighton, where Ernest, Dora Elizabeth 1898, and Stanfield Edgar 1902, were born.

 

In 1901 the family is living with the paternal grandfather, Robert Williams, 68, at 5 Stoney Hey Road, New Brighton, with a domestic servant.  Stanfield 41, is an iron merchant’s traveller, Elizabeth is 30, Beresford is 5, Ernest 3, and Dora 2.  

The 1911 census finds Ernest, 13, a pupil at the (Royal) Commercial Travellers School, Hatch End, Pinner, Middlesex.  The school was established to educate the children of commercial travellers who were deceased or unable to earn a living.  His older brother Beresford, 15, is also a pupil. His widowed mother Elizabeth, 39, is a boarding house keeper at “Stanfield House”, Hamilton Road, New Brighton, with daughter Dora, 12 and son Stanfield, 8, and two servants.  

He enlisted in Liverpool as Rifleman 4331 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 Battalion as Private No 51582. 

Ernest was killed in action on the 12th October 1916 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 death was reported in the Liverpool Echo on 28th October 1916, under the heading, Wallasey Killed and Wounded:

“Rifleman Ernest A. Williams (19) of the K.L.R., second son of Mrs. Williams, of Hamilton Road, New Brighton.  Prior to the war he was in the offices of Messrs. Elder, Dempster and Co.”

His 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.” 

His younger brother Stanfield served in the Merchant Navy in World War Two, and died in 1951 aged 48. 

Grateful thanks are extended to Kevin Shannon the author of the book The Liverpool Rifles for providing details of Ernest's service with the 6th Rifles.