Serjeant 16756 Harold Wilson

Harold was baptised in Grange on 22nd October 1893. 

 

The family moved to Knutsford, Cheshire after 1898 and by 1901 are living in Cranford Avenue with four children and a boarder. His father is 35, a domestic coachman, his mother is 32, Harold is 7, Frank 6, William 4, and Margery is 2.

 

The 1911  census finds them at 50 King Street, Knutsford, with five children at home and a boarder. His father Fred, 45, is a taxi car driver, his mother is 42, Harold is 17, employed as a junior clerk, William, 14, Margery, 12, and Edward, 9, are at school.

 

Harold enlisted at St George's Hall in Liverpool on 03rd September 1914 as Private 16756, joining the 18th (Pals) Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment, giving his age as 20 years and 343 days and his occupation as clerk.  He is described as being 5’ 7 and a quarter inches tall, weighing 135 lbs, with a fresh complexion, hazel eyes, and light brown hair.  He gives his religion as C of E, and his next of kin as his father, Fred Wilson, at 2 Hayton Street, Knutsford.

From the 23^rd September 1914 he was billeted at Hooton Park Race Course and remained there until 03^rd December 1914 when they moved into the hutted accommodation at Lord Derby’s estate at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 18th 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 arrived in France on 7^th November 1915.

His service record survives and shows -

 

On leave to UK 17-27 May 1916

 

19th June 1916 Appointed paid Lance Corporal

 

The 18th Bn saw action at the Somme in 1916.

 

02nd September 1916 Appointed Acting Sergeant

 

09th November 1916 Reprimanded for neglect of duty, i.e., not communicating Battalion orders to his platoon

 

23rd November 1916 Confirmed in rank

 

The battalion fought at the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) in 1917.

 

On leave to UK 10-21 September 1917

 

On 21st October 1917 he was posted to the 12th Battalion K.L.R., which was to be involved in the Battle of Cambrai. 

 

Harold was killed in action on 20th November 1917, the first day of the battle. 

 

His body was not recovered from the battlefield, or was subsequently lost, and he is commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial, Louverval.

The CAMBRAI MEMORIAL commemorates more than 7,000 servicemen of the United Kingdom and South Africa who died in the Battle of Cambrai in November and December 1917 and whose graves are not known.

Sir Douglas Haig described the object of the Cambrai operations as the gaining of a 'local success by a sudden attack at a point where the enemy did not expect it' and to some extent they succeeded. The proposed method of assault was new, with no preliminary artillery bombardment. Instead, tanks would be used to break through the German wire, with the infantry following under the cover of smoke barrages.

The attack began early in the morning of 20 November 1917 and initial advances were remarkable. However, by 22 November, a halt was called for rest and reorganisation, allowing the Germans to reinforce. From 23 to 28 November, the fighting was concentrated almost entirely around Bourlon Wood and by 29 November, it was clear that the Germans were ready for a major counter attack. During the fierce fighting of the next five days, much of the ground gained in the initial days of the attack was lost.

For the Allies, the results of the battle were ultimately disappointing but valuable lessons were learnt about new strategies and tactical approaches to fighting. The Germans had also discovered that their fixed lines of defence, no matter how well prepared, were vulnerable.

The Cambrai Memorial was designed by Harold Chalton Bradshaw with sculpture by Charles S. Jagger. It was unveiled by Lieut-General Sir Louis Vaughan on 4 August 1930.

The memorial stands on a terrace at one end of LOUVERVAL MILITARY CEMETERY. The chateau at Louverval, was taken by the 56th Australian Infantry Battalion at dawn on 2 April 1917. The hamlet stayed in Allied hands until the 51st (Highland) Division was driven from it on 21 March 1918 during the great German advance, and it was retaken in the following September.

Parts of Rows B and C of the cemetery were made between April and December 1917 and in 1927, graves were brought in from Louverval Chateau Cemetery, which had been begun by German troops in March 1918 and used by Commonwealth forces in September and October 1918.

The cemetery now contains 124 First World War burials.

Harold earned his three medals. 

 

His parents, living at 2 Hayton Street, Knutsford, received his effects, including a War Gratuity of £17-10s, and a pension of 10/- a week.

 

His brother William enlisted in May 1915 when he was 19, served with the R.A.S.C. in France, and was demobbed in August 1919.

 

In 1939 his parents, with William and Margery, are still at 2 Hayton Street.  His father, 73, is still working, as a plumber’s labourer.  His parents appear to have lived into the 1950s.

 

Harold is commemorated on the Knutsford War Memorial and on his mother’s (Baldwin) family gravestone in Kirkdale Cemetery, Liverpool, Section C.3, grave 1477.