Cpl Harry Appleton

Harry Appleton was born in Bootle on 02nd September 1895, the son of William Henry Appleton and his wife Constance Mary (née Parkinson).  His father, born in Liverpool, and his mother, from Blackburn, married in 1890 and had five children.  Harry had an older brother Percival (Percy), and younger siblings Beatrice (who died in infancy), Dorothy, and Gordon.

 

Harry was baptised in St. Matthew’s, Bootle, on 25th September 1895, his parents’ residence given as 35 Hertford Road, and his father’s occupation as steward.  

 

His father is not found on censuses, being away at sea. In 1891, not long after the marriage, his mother Constance is living with her married sister Sarah Atkinson in Ambleside.

In 1899 his father, age 36, is found on a crew list as a steward on the Majestic (White Star Line), his address 25 Hertford Road.

 

By 1901 Constance is at 34 Cambridge Road, Bootle, with three children and a domestic servant.  His mother is 35, Percy is 7, Harry 5, and Dorothy 11 months old.  

 

When Harry was eight his mother died, in 1904 aged 38, leaving four children under the age of 10.  As his father was a mariner, the children were separated and appear to have lived with relatives.

 

In 1911 his elder brother Percy, 17, a schoolboy, is listed as a boarder with his mother’s married sister, Elizabeth and William Neale and their six children at 35 Hertford Road, Bootle.

 

Dorothy, 11, is living with another of her mother’s sisters, Sarah and Thomas Atkinson in Ambleside, and listed as adopted daughter.

 

Gordon, 7, appears as a visitor in the household of Richard and Bertha Lucas (relationship unknown) in Lower Broughton, Manchester.

 

Harry is found as one of three servants on the farm of John and Ellinor Rees, at Pantyllan, Llanddarog, Camarthenshire, South Wales.  Harry is 15, employed as a farm servant.

 

His father remarried in 1913 to Marion Formby, his residence given as 41 Walker Street.

 

Harry apparently returned to Liverpool, and lived with his aunt Elizabeth Neale and/or his father and his wife.  He may have been employed with the Liverpool Stock Exchange, as H. Appleton is commemorated on the Liverpool Stock Exchange Memorial (of the seven H. Appletons commemorated on CWGC, only one is from the Liverpool area).

 

Harry enlisted in Liverpool  as Private 24517 joining the 18th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment.

 

He shipped to France with his battalion, disembarking at Boulogne on 07th November 1915.  He achieved the rank of Corporal.

 

At some point Harry was posted to the 1st Bn K.L.R.  The battalion war diary records that Cpl. Appleton 24517 joined ‘A’ Company from leave on 11th September 1918. The diary does not record when Cpl. Appleton was wounded, but Harry died of his wounds on 29th September 1918.

He now rests in Grevillers British Cemetery, just west of Bapaume.  The village of Grevillers was occupied by Commonwealth troops on 14 March 1917 and in April and May, the 3rd, 29th and 3rd Australian Casualty Clearing Stations were posted nearby. They began the cemetery and continued to use it until March 1918, when Grevillers was lost to the German during their great advance. On the following 24 August, the New Zealand Division recaptured Grevillers and in September, the 34th, 49th and 56th Casualty Clearing Stations came to the village and used the cemetery again. After the Armistice, 200 graves were brought in from the battlefields to the south of the village, 40 from an adjoining cemetery made during the German occupation, and some from the following:- AVESNES-LES-BAPAUME GERMAN CEMETERY, "near the British huts", which contained the graves of two soldiers from the United Kingdom who died in April 1918. BAYONET TRENCH CEMETERY, GUEUDECOURT, which contained the graves of 19 soldiers of the 1st Australian Infantry Battalion who fell on 5 November 1916. There are now 2,106 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in GREVILLERS BRITISH CEMETERY. 189 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 18 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of two casualties, buried in Avesnes-les-Bapaume German Cemetery, whose graves could not be found. The cemetery also contains the graves of seven Second World War airmen, and 18 French war graves. Within the cemetery stands the GREVILLERS (NEW ZEALAND) MEMORIAL which commemorates almost 450 officers and men of the New Zealand Division who died in the defensive fighting in the area from March to August 1918, and in the Advance to Victory between 8 August and 11 November 1918, and who have no known grave. This is one of seven memorials in France and Belgium to those New Zealand soldiers who died on the Western Front and whose graves are not known. The memorials are all in cemeteries chosen as appropriate to the fighting in which the men died. The cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

 

A notice was placed in the Liverpool Echo on 14th October 1918:

“September 29, died of wounds received in action, after four years of service, aged 23 years, Corpl. Harry Appleton, K.L.R. (late Pals), the dearly-loved second son of W.H. Appleton, 41, Walker Street and 35 Hertford Road, Bootle.

 

His Army effects, including a War Gratuity of £22, went to his father William H. Appleton.

 

Harry earned his three medals.

 

The pension cards show two claimants: First dependent, aunt Elizabeth A. Neale, 35 Hartford Road, Bootle, was awarded a provisional pension of 5/- a week for one year. Second dependent Mrs? M.H? Appleton 41  Walker Street, West Derby Road, was awarded a pension of  5/- a week from March 1919.

 

His father died in 1931 aged 67, living at 41 Walker Street.

 

Harry's brother Percy joined the Merchant Navy like his father and was serving as Chief Steward on the S.S. Ocean Voyager when he was killed on 19th March 1943 aged 49. The ship was discharging cargo which included high explosives and aviation fuel in Tripoli harbour and was hit by torpedoes dropped from a German Ju88. The Chief Officer won the George Cross for remaining on board the burning ship to rescue surviving crew.  Percy is commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial, in London.

 

Harry is commemorated on the following Memorials:

Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance, Panel 15 Left

 

Liverpool Stock Exchange Memorial.