Rifleman 23104 Robert William McCartney

Robert William McCartney (known as William) was born in the March quarter of 1896 in Toxteth Park in Liverpool, and was the eldest son of Robert McCartney and his wife Rose Jane Mary (née Beard). His father, born in Liverpool, had been orphaned at age 11 and trained in an industrial school; his mother was born in London. They married in Deane, Bolton, in 1889. Their first child, Florence, was born in 1890 in Lostock Junction, near Bolton.

In 1891 they lived in Atherton, where his father worked as a mechanic in a cotton mill.

 

They then moved to Liverpool, where Rosey was born in 1892. William had younger siblings Lilian May, 1898, and George Henry, 1901, all born in Toxteth Park.

 

By 1901 they are living at 21 Ballington Street in Toxteth.  His father is a fitter in a sugar refinery, they have five children, William is 5.

 

They are at the same address in 1911.  His father is 45, an engineer at Tate’s sugar refinery (later Tate & Lyle), his mother is 42, Florence, 21, is a dressmaker working on her own account at home, William is 15, an engineering apprentice.  May, 12, and George, 10, are at school. His sister Rose, 18, is a domestic cook in Wallasey.

 

William enlisted in Liverpool on 09th November 1914 as Private 23104, joining the 20th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment, giving his occupation as an electrician and his age as 19 years and 1 month.  (If he gave his correct age, he was born in October 1895, although his birth was not registered until March 1896.)  He is described as being 5’ 10” tall, weighing 122 lbs, with a sallow complexion, and brown hair and eyes.  He gives his religion as Methodist and as next of kin his father Robert at 21 Ballington Street.

Formed in November 1914 the 20^th Battalion were originally billeted at Tournament Hall, Knotty Ash before on 29^th January 1915 they moved to the hutted accommodation purposely built at Lord Derby’s estate at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 20th 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. 

William shipped to France with his battalion, disembarking at Boulogne on 07th November 1915.  He would have seen action at the Somme in 1916, Arras and Passchendaele in 1917, and during the German Spring Offensive in 1918.  

 

He was granted leave to the U.K. 21-30 August 1917.

 

On 22nd June 1918 William was posted to the 2/6th Rifle Bn K.L.R.

 

Four days later, William was killed in action. This extract from The History of the 2/6th (Rifle) Battalion ”The King’s” (Liverpool Regiment) 1914-1919 by Capt. C.E. Wurtzburg, M.C. (Project Gutenberg) gives an idea of the circumstances surrounding his death :

On June 22nd the 62nd Division, on our left, put over a raid with tanks, and we got well shelled in consequence, five men being wounded.

On June 24th there was a thick fog in the evening, and a German wireless message was picked up: "Tell storm troops to stand-by till 6 a.m. opposite Hebuterne." As a result three heavy counter-shoots were carried out by our artillery, though nothing more happened. We had been reinforced by sixty-three men that day from rear headquarters.

On June 25th Colonel Fletcher, who had recently resumed command of the battalion, while going round the right company front with Lieutenant J. R. Paul, had a very narrow escape from a 5·9 which landed full on the parados. Lieutenant Paul was seriously wounded in the back, and two or three men of the post were also wounded. […]

Next day a twelve-hour continuous shoot of all available artillery was delivered on to Rossignol Wood. To this the enemy retaliated on us to some purpose, and we had two men killed and thirteen wounded. 

William was one of the two men killed.  He was laid to rest in Couin New British Cemetery, He was 22 years old. His headstone inscription reads:

“BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD  MATTHEW 5^TH CHPT. 8 V.”

 

Couin Chateau was used as a divisional headquarters from 1915 to 1918. The British Cemetery was begun in May 1916 by the field ambulances of the 48th (South Midland) Division, and was used by units and field ambulances during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. It was closed at the end of January 1917 because further extension was not possible, and now contains 401 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and three German graves. The NEW BRITISH CEMETERY was opened across the road and was used by field ambulances from January 1917 (with a long interval in 1917-18) to the end of the war. One grave was moved there after the Armistice from a cemetery at Coigneux. It now contains 360 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and two German war graves. Both cemeteries were designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield.

In December 1918 his father received William’s personal effects:  1 Identity disc, Letters, Cards, Photographs, 2 Religious books, 1 Diary, 1 Spoon, 1 Tooth brush (broken), 1 Pencil, 1 Tube solution, 1 Pair boot laces.

 

William earned his three medals, which his father signed for in May 1919 and November 1922.  He received the Memorial Plaque and Scroll, and a War Gratuity of £17.

 

In 1920 his father provided information on William’s living relatives;  His sisters Florence (married), 30, Rose, 27, May 21, and brother George 19, were living at home with their parents in Ballington Street.

 

His father died in 1933 in Wrexham.

 

In September 1939 his mother Rose and sisters Rosey, incapacitated, and Lilian May, a shorthand typist,  are living at “Abbeville”, Minera near Wrexham.  His mother died a few months later in April 1940, aged 71.

 

William is commemorated as R McCartney in Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance, Panel 25.

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