Pte 27337 William Pedder

William Pedder was born in Liverpool in late 1895, the only surviving son of William Pedder and his wife Cecelia (née Power).  His parents, both from Liverpool, married in 1886. They had a daughter Martha in 1887 who died in infancy, and a son John in 1889 who died at age 2. Ellen May was born in 1893 and William in 1895, both of whom survived.  Another son Richard was born in 1900, but died at 4 months old.  It appears that his father was Church of England and his mother Roman Catholic, and some of the children were baptised Catholic, but a baptism record for William has not been found.

 

In 1901 they are living at 38 Latimer Street.  His father, 35, is a cotton porter, his mother is 32, Ellen is 7 and William 5.  Also in the household is his maternal grandmother Cecelia Power, 71.

 

His father died in the workhouse in 1902, aged 37, and was buried in a public grave.

 

His mother remarried in 1905 to John Morton, but was widowed again in 1908.

 

William attended St. Sylvester School until the age of 14, and on 2nd September 1910 was admitted  to H.M.S. Indefatigable (moored off Rock Ferry on the Mersey) a training school for boys intending to join the Royal or Merchant Navy.  He had been recommended by the priest of St. Sylvester.   He was 4’ 10” tall and weighed 87 lbs.  His next of kin, his mother, living at 44 Martins Lane, in Liscard, is described as “honest and sober”. 

 

In 1911 his mother 41 is a domestic in Martins Lane, Liscard, and his sister Ellen is living with cousins, the Leatherbarrows, in Kirkdale.  His mother married again in 1912 to James Nelson.

 

Whilst on the ship, in 1912, William won the Ismay Prize. According to the Indefatigable Old Boys Association, “The Ismay family, owners of the White Star Line and RMS Titanic, instituted the “Ismay Prize” of £20 to be awarded to the best Indefatigable Cadet of the year. £20 at that time would have been more wealth than the family had ever owned.”

 

William left the ship on 05th September 1912 to join the Empress of Britain. He was now 5’ 3” tall weighing 119 lbs., and his character was described as excellent.  His first voyage was a round trip from Liverpool to Quebec on 6th-27th September 1912.  The crew list shows William, 16, an ordinary seaman, address 5 Benledi Street.

 

It is not known how long William served in the Merchant Marine (he may have joined the Booth Line) or why he joined the Army and not the Navy. William enlisted in Liverpool joining the 17th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private 27337. The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he served for a year and a half, enlisting in about September 1915. He arrived in France on 15th March 1916 and at some point was transferred to the 12th Bn. K.L.R.

 

William was killed in action on 20th February 1917.

His death was reported in the local press:

Private W Pedder, of The King's (Liverpool Regiment), who was killed in action on February 20, lived at Hook Street, Liverpool.  

His body was not recovered or was subsequently lost as his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.

The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916. 

On 01st August 1932 the Prince of Wales and the President of France inaugurated the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy. The inscription reads: “Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.” 

A notation in the Indefatigable record states “killed by grenade in trenches”.

 

His mother placed an In Memoriam notice on the first anniversary of his death, in the Liverpool Daily Post on 20th February 1918:

“In loving memory of William Pedder, K.L.R., killed in action February 20, 1917.  (How I miss him.  Never one moment forgotten.)  His sorrowing Mother, Sister, Uncle Jimmy, and Arthur, 31 Hook Street.”

 

His mother Cecelia, using the name Pedder and living at 31 Hook Street, Liverpool, received William’s Army effects and a War Gratuity of £7-10s.  It is not clear if a pension was awarded. 

 

His mother died in 1933, aged 64.  She was buried in Anfield Cemetery in a public grave.

 

William is commemorated in Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance, Panel 53

Also threre is a  W. Pedder commemorated in the Booth Line Roll of Honour book.

 

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