Pte 15381 Joseph Norris Partington

• Age: 23
• From: Wallasey, Cheshire
• Regiment: 1st Kings
• Died on Saturday 28th April 1917
• Commemorated at: Arras Memorial
  Panel Ref: Bay 3

Joseph Norris Partington was born on 01st December 1893 in Wallasey the only son of Norris Partington and his wife Eliza (nee Woodhouse) who were married 30th November 1879 at St Andrews' Church, Liverpool. His father was born in Manchester and his mother in Rochdale. They had three children; Joseph had older sisters Eliza born in 1883, and Olive in 1888. All the children were born in Wallasey, but were baptised in St. Peter’s Church, Liverpool. Joseph was baptised at eight months old on 22nd August 1894, his parents’ residence listed as Egremont, and his father’s occupation as hatter.

The 1901 Census finds the family living at 14 Devon Avenue, Liscard. His father is a manager,   retail hatter, and lives with his wife and three children;  Eliza is 17  and is telephone operator, Olive is 13 and Joseph N. who is seven years of age. All three children are shown as having been born in Egremont, Cheshire.

The 1911 census shows the family were still living at 14 Devon Avenue, Liscard, Cheshire. His father is 56, his mother 54, and Eliza, 27, is a telephone operator.  She married shortly after the census. Olive is now married and with her husband William Stafford Burrows who is a 23 year old automobile engineer. Joseph is 17 and is shown as a junior hatter which suggests he was working with his father whose occupation is shown as a hatter. Also present is a servant, 15 year old Kate Holsgrove.

Joseph Norris enlisted in Liverpool shortly after Lord Derby's appeal for volunteers, joining the 17th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 15381.

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. 

He shipped to France with his battalion on 07th November 1915.

He was serving in the 1st Battalion of K.L.R. when he was killed in action on 28th April 1917, aged 23.

His body was not recovered from the battlefield or was subsequently lost as his name is recorded on the Arras Memorial in France.

The ARRAS MEMORIAL commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918, the eve of the Advance to Victory, and have no known grave. The most conspicuous events of this period were the Arras offensive of April-May 1917, and the German attack in the spring of 1918. Canadian and Australian servicemen killed in these operations are commemorated by memorials at Vimy and Villers-Bretonneux. A separate memorial remembers those killed in the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. Both cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, with sculpture by Sir William Reid Dick. The memorial was unveiled by Lord Trenchard, Marshal of the Royal Air Force on the 31 July 1932 (originally it had been scheduled for 15 May, but due to the sudden death of French President Doumer, as a mark of respect, the ceremony was postponed until July).