Pte 51557 Charles Frederick Phillips

 

 

The 1901 census finds the family at 9 Morton Terrace, Rastrick, Yorkshire, where his father is a public works contractor.  They have five children; Charles is 5.

His mother appears to have died in Yorkshire in 1905, at the age of 31, when Charles would have been 9 and the youngest four years old. His father took the family to Liverpool, where he remarried in 1907 to Margaret Jones from Garston.  They had a son Harold, then moved again to Nuneaton, Warwickshire, where Eva, James, and Bessie were born.

 

In 1911 his stepmother Margaret is living at 49 Henry Street, Nuneaton, with her four children, Harold 3, Eva 2, James 1, and Bessie 5 months old, as well as Charles’ siblings William 12, and Lucy 10.  His eldest sister Lily, 19, is living in Nuneaton as a mother’s help to a schoolteacher’s family, at the School House, Bulkington.

 

Charles and his father are found boarding with the Morgan family at 5 Railway Cottages, Warwick Road, Coventry.  They both work for the L&NW Railway, his father, 41, as a contractor/timekeeper, and Charles, 15, as a labourer. 

 

Some time after the census the family settled in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire,  from where Charles enlisted in Liverpool, joining the 20th Battalion of The Kings Liverpool Regiment as Private 22809. 

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.

He served overseas from 07th November 1915 but was subject to a number of transfers within the King's Liverpool Regiment having served in the 20th, the 1st and 13th Battalions before he was transferred to the 5th Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment as Private 51557. 

 

The medal index card shows that he shipped to France with his battalion, disembarking at Boulogne on 07th November 1915.

 

His name appeared in the list of K.L.R. Wounded published in the Liverpool Daily Post & Mercury on 1st June 1917.  It is possible that he was transferred to the 2/5th Lincoln Regiment after recuperating from his wounds

 

In late August 1917 the battalion entrained at Acheux, arriving in Flanders on 1st September. They were in action during the Battle of the Menin Road Ridge and at Polygon Wood. In October they moved to Lens, taking over the front line, then moved to Bapaume on 17th November. They were in action during the capture of Bourlon Wood and the German counter attacks.  Just before Christmas they moved to Le Cauroy for rest and further training, going back into the line at Bullecourt on 11th February 1918.  During the German Spring Offensive they suffered heavy casualties at Bapaume. The division moved to Poperinge in Flanders, and took over the front line at Passchendaele on 5th April. 

 

The Battle of the Lys began on 7th April 1918. The German plan was to break through the First Army, push the Second Army aside to the north, and drive west to the Channel, cutting off British forces in France from their supply line which ran through the Channel ports of Calais, Dunkirk, and Boulogne. 

 

By the 11th of April, the British situation was desperate; it was on this day that Haig issued his famous "backs to the wall" order.  On the 13th they moved to reinforce the Lys area at Bailleul.  From 13th to 15th April the Germans drove forward in the centre, taking Bailleul despite increasing British resistance. 

 

Charles Frederick was killed in action on 15th April 1918, aged 22. His body was not recovered from the battlefield and his name is recorded on the Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium.

 

Charles earned his three medals.

 

His Army effects and a War Gratuity of £16 went to his father.

 

In 1939 his father, 70, a retired shipping clerk, and stepmother are living at The Poplars, Windsor Drive, Ellesmere Port.  

 

His father died in 1944, aged 73

 

Charles is commemorated on the following memorials:

Christ Church, Ellesmere Port

Ellesmere Port Cross.

 

 

We currently have no further information on Charles Frederick Phillips, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.