2nd Lieut Thomas Carline

• Age: 30
• From: Chester
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Monday 30th September 1918
• Commemorated at: Uplands Cem Magny-le-fosse
  Panel Ref: A.2

Thomas Carline was born on 17th December 1897 at Chester and was baptised on 21st March 1897 at St John's Church, Chester. He was the son of John Carline and his wife Elizabeth (nee Tulloch) who had married in 1880 at Chester. 

The 1891 Census finds the family living at Francis Street, Chester.

The father is a Post Office clerk, born in Chester in 1854 whilst his mother was born in Chester in 1853. Thomas, aged 3, is the youngest of three boys. His siblings are shown as; George F b.1881 and John T b. 1885.

By 1901 the family have moved to 19 Hamilton Street, Chester. Both parents are present. Thomas is 13 years of age, his eldest brother George is now a Post Office Clerk, John is now 16 and they are joined by a sister Elizabeth who was born in 1892.

The family are still living at 19 Hamilton Street in 1911. Both parents are present as are Thomas, now 23 and a Clerk and his brother John Tulloch a Railway wagon builder. 
    
He married Edith Marion Hallam in the fourth quarter of 1917. 

Prior to the war he was employed at Lever Brothers at Port Sunlight. He was one of a number of Lever Brothers employees who joined the 18th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment at the first opportunity. Thomas initially joined as Private 16165. 

From the 23^rd September 1914 he was billeted at Hooton Park Race Course and remained there until 03^rd December 1914 when they moved into the hutted accommodation at Lord Derby’s estate at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 18th 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 arrived in France on 7^th November 1915.

He served through the Somme, Arras and Ypres battles, eventually reaching the rank of Company Quarter Master Sergeant. In November 1917,he was recommended for a commission and returned to England the same month for instruction at the Officers Training Corps School at Gidea Park, Essex. Having been commissioned and Gazetted back to his old Battalion, he then returned to France in early September 1918, posted to the 15th Battalion, The Lancashire Fusiliers. He had only been back in France for two weeks when he was killed in action on 30th September 1918.

At that Stage of the war, the British Army was engaged in trying to breach the German defences known as the Hindenburg Line, in the region of the Canal de L’Escaut at Bellenglise, south west of Cambrai. On the 29th September, The 46th (North Midland) Division had managed to cross the Canal, between the two tunnels at Belincourt and Le Tronquoy. As a consequence, the 15th Battalion The Lancashire Fusiliers, part of the 96th Brigade, 32nd Division was ordered to keep up the impetus of the attack by capturing the village of Joncourt on the following day.

The attack began at 08.30am, supported by artillery and several tanks and the plan was, that the 15th Battalion should enter the village once Australian troops on the left hand side had secured its flanks. However the Australians were held up by heavy machine gun fire from the west and south of the village, and as a consequence, as the Fusiliers advanced over open ground, they came under very heavy fire. Despite repeated and determined attempts to enter the village by nightfall, the Battalion had only succeeded in establishing itself on the outskirts of Joncourt, albeit in touch with units on its flanks. The village finally fell to the Battalion on the following day.

During the course of the day’s fighting Second-Lieutenant Carline was killed. He was aged thirty.

Thomas now rests at Uplands Cemetery, Magny La Fosse in France where his headstone bears the epitaph: 

"THE DEARLY LOVED HUSBAND OF EDITH M. CARLINE OF PORT SUNLIGHT".

On 29 September - 2 October 1918, the Battle of the St. Quentin Canal was fought. The 46th (North Midland) Division stormed the Hindenburg Line at Bellenglise and captured 4,000 prisoners and 70 guns. The 30th United States Division captured Bellicourt and Nauroy, which were cleared by the 5th Australian Division.

The village of Magny-la-Fosse was taken by the 46th (North Midland) Division on 29 September 1918, after their capture of Bellenglise, but the cemetery belongs rather to the 32nd Division, who followed after them. Uplands Cemetery contains 43 burials of the First World War, three of them unidentified. The cemetery was designed by W H Cowlishaw.

Reports of Thomas' death appeared with a notice in the Liverpool Post and Mercury dated 18th October 1918:

KILLED IN ACTION

“CARLINE – September 30, killed in action, aged 30 years, Sec-Lieut TOM CARLINE, Lancashire Fusiliers, late Pals, the dearly loved husband of Edith Marian Carline, 16 Church Drive Port Sunlight.”

Also a report in the Cheshire Observer dated 19th October 1918:

PRO PATRIA LIEUT THOMAS CARLINE

“Heartfelt sympathy will be extended to Mr and Mrs John Carline of Lea Holmes Lea by Backford on the loss of their third son Lieut Thomas Carline, Kings Liverpool Regiment killed in action on September 30th. The late lieutenant was well known to the followers of the Chester Football Club where he occupied the position of goalkeeper a year or so before the war. Lieut Carline volunteered in August 1914 joining the “Liverpool Pals”. He soon became a great favourite with his regiment and before embarking for France in 1915 had been made a sergeant. Through the terrible battles of the Somme he passed unscathed. He was subsequently appointed Company Quartermaster Sergeant and remained in France until December 1917 when he came home to train for a commission which he afterwards received. At the time of his receiving orders for abroad in Sept last he was stationed at Henham Park Camp Wangford Suffolk. He was known as a good sportsman, large hearted, cheerful, brave, a typical Englishman. “We have got them licked” was his smiling reply to all enquiries as to the progress of the war. In civil life the late lieutenant was a clerk employed by Messrs. Lever Brothers, Liver Buildings, Liverpool. In December last Lieut Carline married Miss Edith Marian Hallam of Port Sunlight to whom the deepest sympathy is expressed. Mr John Carline it will be remembered retired from the post of chief clerk at Chester Post Office in 1910.” 

Cheshire Observer 4th October 1919

IN MEMORIAM

CARLINE - In fond remembrance of Sec-Lieut. Tom Carline, 18th Service Battalion King's Liverpool Regiment (Attd Lancs Fusiliers), killed in action, France, September 30th, 1918 -  Leaholme, Mollington.

Soldiers Effects and Pension to widow Mrs Edith Marion Marrison (S/E state he was attached to the Lancashire Fusiliers). 

A son Thomas Hallam Carline was born after his death in 1919.

Edith married Leslie Marrison at St Andrew's Church, Bebington in 1934. She passed away aged 92 in Delyn, Clywd in March 1987.

Thomas is commemorated on the following memorials:

Hoole and Newton Cross and Stone

St Oswalds Church, Backford, Chester 

Lever Brothers, Port Sunlight

We currently have no further information on Thomas Carline, 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 the Museum staff at Port Sunlight who made available the staff magazine from which Thomas's photograph came.