2nd Lieut Allan Dawson

• Age: 30
• From: Ashton upon Mersey
• Regiment: MGC
• Died on Sunday 3rd September 1916
• Commemorated at: Delvile Wood Cem, Longueval
  Panel Ref: XIV.H.2

Allan Dawson was born in Ashton on Mersey, Lancashire, on 26th May 1886, the son of James Naismith Dawson and his wife Mary (née Riley).  His father, born in Scotland , and his mother in Accrington, married in 1873 and had eight children, one of whom died young. Allan had older siblings James, Mary, Colin, Nora, and Elsie, and a younger brother Gordon. 

The 1891 census finds the family at “Park House”, Ashton Lane, Ashton on Mersey, with seven children, a cook, a housemaid, and a nurse.  His father is a calico printer, Allan is 4. 

He was educated privately in Manchester. 

By 1901 they have moved to Crumpsall, north Manchester, living at “Ingledene”, Crumpsall Lane, with seven children.  His father is a calico printer, working on his own account.  Allan (listed as Adam) is 14. 

His father died in 1904, aged 62, and his older brother James died in early 1911. 

At the time of the 1911 census the family is living in Liverpool, at “Glenville” Moss Lane, Orrell Park.  His widowed mother, 61, is head of household.  Colin, 31, is a clergyman, Established Church.  Nora, 29, and  Elsie, 27, have no occupation.  Allan is 24, working as an insurance clerk.  Gordon, 21, is a buyer’s assistant for a shipper. They have a domestic servant/cook. 

According to De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour, Allan worked for the Yorkshire, and the State Insurance Companies, and was appointed District Manager of the North British Mercantile Insurance Co. in Preston in July 1914. 

It is also noted that he took a keen interest in work amongst lads, especially the Cadet Movement, and was a Captain with the Church Lads’ Brigade. 

He enlisted in November 1914 as Private 22976, joining the 20th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment, and was Gazetted Second Lieutenant in January 1915. 

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  

He landed in France on 8th November 1915.   He volunteered for machine gun work, and after training at fhe  Machine Gun School, transferred to the 22nd Coy, M.G.C. Allan was killed in action on 3rd September 1916. 

DeRuvigny gives some details of the circumstances of this death: 

The infantry, being surprised by a large enemy force concealed in a sunken road, could neither advance nor retire, and were in danger of being destroyed. The machine guns were ordered forward to cover their retirement and Allan was killed while directing the placement of his guns.   

His Captain wrote, “Dawson was a brave man, and as thorough a gentleman as he was a sound officer.  My personal sense of his loss enables me to appreciate the extent of your bereavement.  He was always keen, and his high sense of duty enabled him to carry out the most difficult of tasks unquestioningly, and with a coolness and cheerfulness which always had a great effect on his men.” 

The officer commanding his former company wrote, “He was a very good officer and a man of very high principles, which he always acted on. His men were devoted to him, as he was most considerate and thoughtful to them.” 

A brother officer also wrote, “It was to my section that he came when he joined the company and we were together constantly.  We got on splendidly, and the men liked him from the first.  He was a wonderful fellow.   …. In everything he showed the same characteristic. Nothing was too small to be conscientiously attended to and, as a natural consequence, nothing was too great.” 

He was buried northeast of Delville Wood and, after the war when graves were concentrated, his body was exhumed and reinterred in Delville Wood Cemetery, Longueval, Somme, where his epitaph reads, 

IN COURAGE AND IN GENTLENESS

IN HONOUR AND CLEAN MIRTH 

Delville Wood was a tract of woodland, nearly 1 kilometre square, the western edge of which touched the village of Longueval in the Somme. On 14 July 1916 the greater part of Longueval village was taken by the 9th (Scottish) Division and on the 15th, the South African Brigade of that Division captured most of Delville Wood. The wood now formed a salient in the line, with Waterlot Farm and Mons Wood on the south flank still in German hands, and, owing to the height of the trees, no close artillery support was possible for defence.

The three South African battalions fought continuously for six days and suffered heavy casualties. On 18 July, they were forced back and on the evening of the 20th the survivors, a mere handful of men, were relieved. On 27 July, the 2nd Division retook the wood and held it until 4 August when the 17th Division took it over. On 18 and 25 August it was finally cleared of all German resistance by the 14th (Light) Division. The wood was then held until the end of April 1918 when it was lost during the German advance, but was retaken by the 38th (Welsh) Division on the following 28 August.

DELVILLE WOOD CEMETERY was made after the Armistice, when graves were brought in from a few small cemeteries and isolated sites, and from the battlefields. Almost all of the burials date from July, August and September 1916.

Commonwealth graves were concentrated into Delville Wood Cemetery. 

There are now 5,523 burials and commemorations of the First World War in this cemetery. 3,593 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 27 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of three soldiers buried in Courcelette Communal Cemetery German Extension, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

Opposite the cemetery stands the SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL MEMORIAL. Originally intended as a memorial to the South African servicemen who served and died in all theatres during the First World War, this was later extended to include the Second World War and the Korean War.

His death was reported in the Liverpool Post & Mercury on 11th September 1916:

“Second Lieutenant Allan Dawson, who is reported as having been killed in action on September 3, was the son of the late James Naismith Dawson and brother of the Rev. Colin T. Dawson of SS John and James Vicarage, Linacre Lane, Bootle.” 

His siblings placed a notice in the Liverpool Echo on the same day:

“September 3, killed in action, Second Lieutenant Allan Dawson (Machine Gun Corps), son of the late James Naismith and Mary Dawson and the dearly-loved brother of the Rev. Colin T. and Nora Dawson, SS John and James Vicarage, Linacre Lane, Bootle.” 

His family bequeathed a trophy in Allan’s name: in the Liverpool Daily Post on 26th May 1917:

“Church Lads’ Brigade - Allan Dawson Trophy:   The final round for the Allan Dawson Memorial Trophy took place between teams of six cadets from four home companies of the 3rd Liverpool Cadet Battalion Church Lads’ Brigade on Thursday.  …  The fine cup presented for this competition has been given by the members of the family of the late Second Lieutenant Allan Dawson, (Machine-gun Section of the Liverpool “Pals” Regiment) to commemorate his connection as a cadet officer of the Church Lads’ Brigade.” 

Allan earned his three medals. 

Probate 1916

DAWSON Allan of Vicarage, Linacre Lane, Bootle, Lieutenant King's Liverpool Regiment, died 3rd of September 1916 at Ginchy, France. Administration London 31st of October to the Reverend Colin Towers Dawson, clerk. Effects £169 19s 10d.

His younger brother Gordon was also a Pal. He enlisted in February 1915 as Pte, 24991, 17th Bn K.L.R., went to France with the battalion on 07/11/1915, and, after Alan’s death, in December 1916, transferred to the 89th Coy, M.G.C. He survived the war and returned home in January 1919.

Allan is commemorated in Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance, Panel (new)

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