Pte 24326 Joseph Lyon

• Age: 31
• From: Prescot
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• Died on Thursday 22nd August 1918
• Commemorated at: Bac-du-sud British Cemetery, Bailleulval
  Panel Ref: III.A.18

Joseph was born in Prescot on 01st October 1886 and was the son of Robert Lyon and his wife Mary Jane (nee Stockley). He was baptised at Prescot Parish Church on 07th December 1886 and was one of 12 children.

Both the 1891 and 1901 Census shows the family living at Sugar Lane, Knowsley. 

The 1901 Census shows Joseph is aged 14, and a bricklayers apprentice and living with father Robert 50 bricklayer, mother Jane 49, Robert 21 builder, Thomas 17 stonemason apprentice, Alice 16, James 12, Jessie 10, Henry 7, Richard 7, Jane 23.

Joseph married Emily Miranda in 1910 and the subsequent Census of 1911 shows them living at Gilders Green Lane, Prescot with the addition of their first born son Joseph. At this time Joseph Snr is working as a bricklayer.

Joseph was serving in the 19th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 24326 when he was killed in action on 22nd August 1918 aged 31 during the final British offensive of the War which helped to secure the Armistice. 

He now rests at Bac Du Sud British Cemetery in France.

The cemetery was made in March 1918 by the 7th, 20th and 43rd Casualty Clearing Stations, but when the German advance began at the end of that month, their place was taken by field ambulances of the units fighting on the Arras front, notably the 31st Division and the Canadian Corps. In August and September, when the Germans had been pushed back, the 45th and 46th Casualty Clearing Stations were posted to the neighbourhood. Bac-du-Sud British Cemetery contains 688 Commonwealth burials of the First World War. There are also 55 German war graves. The cemetery was designed by Charles Holden.

Sadly his brother James was also killed in action in the war and there is a Memorial to the brothers in Prescot Parish Church.  

Soldiers Effects to his widow Emily and pension to Emily Lyon/Yates and children Joseph William, Annie Alice, Robert and Daniel James.

His widow Emily married William Yates in 1920 at All Saints Church, Stoneycroft, Liverpool. 

A remarkable footnote to this biography is that Joseph and Emily had four sons all of whom served in the Second World War. A report in the Liverpool Echo of 05th April 1941 reports that the 4 sons of Emily Lyon are serving in the war, their late father was one of the Liverpool Pals killed in France in the last war. The four brothers are Sergeants Joe, Richard and Daniel. William is a gunner in the Royal Navy. All four are former pupils of Broadgreen Council School.  

Happily all four survived the war.

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

Grateful thanks are extended to Alison Burke for the detailed biography of Joseph and his remarkable family.