Pte 50654 Joseph Byron

Joseph was born in Manchester on 7th December 1896, the youngest son of John Byron and his wife Mary Ellen (née Lavery).  His father was born in Prescot and his mother in Manchester.  They married in Oldham in 1880, where six of their seven children were born:  Henry (died in infancy) born in 1882, Eliza 1883, John Edward 1886, William 1890, Mary Ellen 1892, and George 1893.  His father worked in cotton mills in Oldham, and by 1897 the family had moved to the Manchester area, where cotton mills also provided employment.

 

The two girls Eliza and Mary Ellen were baptised Roman Catholic.  John and William were baptised Church of England at older ages in 1900.  Joseph was baptised in All Souls, Ancoats, Manchester, on 07th July 1897, his parents’ residence given as 56 Cobden Street, and his father’s occupation cardroom jobber.

 

In 1901 his parents with three sons are living at 11 Nador Street, Ancoats, Manchester.  His father, 42, and his brother John, 14, work in a cotton mill.  His mother is 40, William is 10 and Joseph 4. 

 

Joseph attended Holland Street Schools, Miles Platting.

 

His mother died in 1905 aged 44, when Joseph was 8, and his father remarried in 1907 to Emma Sidall.  But by 1911 his father has died and Joseph, with two brothers and his stepmother are living at 184 Viaduct Street, Ardwick, with the Proctor family.  His stepmother Emma, 49, is a sister in law, born in Derbyshire.  Also in the household is boarder John Sidall, 17.  Joseph is 13, at school. His brother William is 21, a moulder, and George, 18, is a barman’s assistant on the railway. 

 

Joseph is found on the Trade Union Membership Register for the National Union of Railwaymen in 1914.  He is 17, employed as a van boy.

He enlisted in Manchester and was serving in the 17^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 50654 when he was killed in action on the 28^th April 1918 during the German Spring Offensive. The circumstances of his death are found in the Battalion Diary:

By the 25^th April the battalion had taken up positions of readiness in the Voormezeele sector. On the night of the 27^th, at 8.30 p.m. they moved to the line to relieve 4^th Bn, relief completed about 1 a.m.

28^th – At about 1 p.m. a company of composite battalion gave way on the left of our line and the Bosche penetrated from the Canal Bank to the left of my battalion front, which position he maintained despite 5 hours fighting. My reserve company was ordered to counter-attack and restore the position at 7.45 p.m. but enemy laid down a barrage at 7.43 a.m. and the counter attack was unable to proceed. The enemy bombardment lasted until 10.30 p.m. and I then organised a defensive flank.

Joseph was one of the casualties that night and his body was not recovered or his grave was subsequently lost. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium.

Those United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after August 16th 1917 are named on the Tyne Cot Memorial, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war.

The Tyne Cot Memorial now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage and F.V. Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett on 20 June 1927.

The memorial forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which was established around a captured German blockhouse or pill-box used as an advanced dressing station.

Joseph’s name appeared in the list of K.L.R. Killed published in the Weekly Casualty List on 18th June 1918.

Byron 50654 J.(Beswick)

 

A War Gratuity of £6 went to his brother William and sister Elizabeth (Eliza?), now Grimshaw.  A pension card has not been found.

 

Information for his CWGC headstone was provided by his brother William Byron, of 65, Edensor St., Beswick, Manchester.

 

Sadly, Joseph had not been found on any memorial.