Pte 13784 Joseph Wilson

• Age: 26
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• D.O.W Monday 21st October 1918
• Commemorated at: Ford Cem Liverpool
  Panel Ref: Screen Wall RD.267

Joseph (Joe) Wilson was born on 14th January 1893, the son of William Wilson and his wife Mary Anne (née Hughes). His father, a British subject born in India, and his mother, born in Liverpool, married at Our Lady & St. Nicholas & St. Anne's Church in Liverpool in 1882 and had 12 children, of whom only six survived.  Joe had older siblings Thomas, Margaret, and George, and younger siblings William and Agnes.  Joe was baptised in St. Francis Xavier, Liverpool, on 23rd January. 

In 1901 the family is living at 89 Field Street, Everton, with five children, his father is a warehouse porter, Joseph is 7.  He was educated at St. Francis Xavier School. 

1911 finds them at 33 Phoebe Ann Street, Everton.  His father, 49, is a foreman in a sugar refinery, his mother is 47,  George, 20, is a labourer, Joseph is 18, a furniture remover, William is 10 and Agnes 8.   Also in the household is married sister Margaret and her husband.

Unfortunately his service record has not survived so the details are not known.  Based on the War Gratuity, Joe enlisted soon after war was declared.  We do know that he enlisted at Seaforth, as Private 13784, 14th Bn, King’s (Liverpool) Regiment. The 14th battalion trained at Eastbourne and Seaford before shipping to France on 4th September 1915.  However, Joe’s medal roll shows that he arrived in France on 24th September 1915. The Medal Roll shows that Joe was transferred to the 18th Bn, but does not indicate when. The 18th Bn arrived in France in November 1915. Joe’s name and number appeared in the list of Wounded published in the Weekly Casualty List on 28th May 1918, battalion not specified. In late April and May 1918 the 18th Bn is in the Ypres Salient and the 14th Bn in the Balkans.  It is not known whether Joe went to the Balkan (Salonika) front with the 14th in October 1915, and fought in the Battles of Horseshoe Hill and Machukovo in 1916 and at Doiran in 1917. They returned to France in June 1918.  The 18th Bn fought on the Western Front, seeing action at the Somme in 1916 and Passchendaele in 1917. We cannot say for certain that the wounds he suffered in May were the wounds which caused his death in October.

Joe was evacuated home from wherever he was wounded and died of wounds and pneumonia at Bootle Borough Hospital on 21st October 1918.  

He was laid to rest in Ford Cemetery, Liverpool, on 29th October, his burial record stating, “Joe Wilson, 18/King’s L’pool, Co.D. Grave R.D.270.” 

There are 451 First World War burials in the Cemetery.

Joe is also commemorated on the Screen Wall at Ford Cemetery. Screen Walls are a type of memorial for Commonwealth War Dead, they are predominantly used to record the names of individuals who have a known grave but where it is not possible to erect a CWGC headstone or the exact location of the grave is no longer known.

According to CWGC record he was 26 years of age  but based on baptism and census records he would have been 25). His CWGC record shows 14th Bn K.L.R. Joe earned his three medals.  His mother, living at 51 Sykes Street, Everton, received his effects and a War Gratuity of £24.

His brother George joined the 13th Bn K.L.R. as Private 5666 in 1915, was transferred to 1/7th, and was attached to the Royal Engineers as Private 267389 when he died of wounds on 6th June 1917, age 25. He now rests at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Flanders. 

Both brothers are commemorated in the Hall of Remembrance in Liverpool Town Hall. Joe at Panel 31 and George at Panel 32 right.  

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