Pte 15320 George Roy Williams

• Age: 19
• From: Birkenhead, Cheshire
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• K.I.A Monday 10th July 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.

George Roy Williams was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, in the September quarter of 1896 to John Williams and Mary Ann (nee Jones), both born in Carnarvon, Wales and who married in about 1883.  George was the eighth of nine children; his siblings were, Gertrude, John, William, Adeline (who died in infancy), Llewellyn, Blodwen, Henry (Harry), all born in Liverpool, and the youngest Edward, like George, born in Birkenhead.

George enlisted when he was 18 years old, but must have claimed he was 19 in order to serve overseas.  He enlisted at St George's Hall in Liverpool as Private 15320, 17^th (Pals) Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment.  

His enlistment was reported in the Birkenhead News on 23rd January 1915

Private George Roy Williams

Private George Williams, fifth son of Mr and Mrs J. W. Williams, 12 Marlborough Grove, Oxton, enlisted in the 1st Battalion of the Liverpool "Pals" at the commencement of the war. He is at present stationed at Prescot and is eager to go to the front.

He was billeted at Prescot Watch Factory from 14^th September 1914, he trained there and also at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 17th Battalion alongside the other three Pals battalions left Liverpool via Prescot Station for further training at Belton Park, Grantham. They remained here until September 1915 when they reached Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain. 

George shipped to France with his battalion, disembarking at Boulogne on 07^th November 1915.  

In December the battalion is sent to Englebelmer on the Somme front and in the new year the Pals battalions take up position in the south of the Somme line near Carnoy.  After specialist training at Abbeville for the ‘Big Push’ the battalion returns to the front lines at Maricourt, and the Battle of the Somme begins on 1^st July 1916.  George survived that deadly day, with nearly 20,000 dead.  The 17^th battalion took its objectives, although at a cost.  Then, on 10^th July, the 10^th was tasked with taking Trones Wood, still held by the Germans.

The murderous fighting that went on inside Trones Wood rendered it impossible to put specific dates on some of the casualties which is why many of the 17^th Battalion losses have been bracketed as killed in action between 10^th – 12th July 1916. The conditions are best described in the following passage from Everard Wyrall’s book The History of The King’s Regiment (Liverpool) Volume II. 

The remembrance of Trones Wood in July 1916 to those who passed through it is of a noisome, horrible place, of a tangled mass of trees and undergrowth which had been tossed and flung about in frightful confusion by the shells of both sides. Of the ghastly dead which lay about in all directions, and of DEATH, lurking in every hole and corner with greedy hands ready to snatch the lives of the unwary. The place was a Death trap, and although the attacks were made with great determination,   the presence of snipers who could not be detected and often fired into the backs of our men made the clearing of the wood impossible.

CWGC shows George’s date of death as 10^th – 12^th July, but it seems, from a report in the Birkenhead News on 29^th July 1916, that his death was known and recorded, not one of the many lost whose death was impossible to determine during the fighting in Trones Wood:  

George’s body was not recovered or was subsequently lost, as he has no known grave and is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.

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 death was reported in the Birkenhead News 29th July 1916

Killed While Getting His Tea.

A Woodland's School Old Boy.

It is with regret we announce the death in action of one of the "Pals" Private George Roy Williams. The fifth son of Mr. and Mrs. Williams of 12 Marlborough-grove, Oxton, the ill-fated soldier was only 20 years of age, and joined the 1st Battalion of the Liverpool "Pals"at their formation in the early days of the war. A sad feature of the case was that he came through all the fierce fighting of the recent "Push" without a scratch, but whilst getting sometea from a Dixie he was struck on the back of the head by a piece of shell and killed instantly. Private Williams before joining the Army was connected with the well known Liverpool shipping firm of Yeoward Bros., James street, and a sympathetic letter has been received by his mother from the manager , Mr E. V. Joneswho writes:--"I much regret to say that I have received a letter this morning from my son, who is now in hospital in Cardiff stating that George was instantly killed by a piece of shell which struck him on the back of the head whilst he was heading down to get some tea from a "Dixie." This is the third casualty out of our little lot of six from this office and I hardly say that we feel this loss keenly, and you may rest assured that right down to the office we all join you in your great sorrow.
Private Williams was a member of the Willmer-road Church and received his early education at Woodlands School. He has two brothers in traning in England, and another on the Western Front.  

George was remembered on the first anniversary of his death in the Liverpool Echo on 10th July 1917

WILLIAMS - In loving memory of Private George Roy Williams K.L.R. (Pals), killed in action, July 10, 1916, the beloved son of Mr and Mrs Williams, 12 Marlborough Grove, Birkenhead. (Loved by all.)

George earned his three medals; his effects went to his father John. 

His brother Llewellyn served in the 6^th K.L.R., attached to the 9^th Bn, and was discharged in 1917 with a disability from a gunshot wound to the left arm.

His youngest brother Edward Stanley Williams, enlisted in the Cheshire Regiment and was serving as Pte 29436, Royal Warwickshire Reg’t, when he was killed in action on 31^st August 1918, aged 20.  He now lies in Vis-en-Artois Cemetery, Pas de Calais.

Their mother received a pension for her two sons killed in the war.

George and Edward are both commemorated on Birkenhead Civic Memorial and the Cheshire Roll of Honour.

George is commemorated on the Liverpool Hall of Remembrance Panel 34. 

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