Pte 22637 John Joseph Carroll

• Age: 18
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 20th Btn
• K.I.A Monday 3rd July 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.

John Joseph Carroll was born in Liverpool on 05^th August 1897 and baptised on 16th August in St. Francis Xavier's Church, Liverpool. His parents William Henry Carroll and Catherine McGrath were married in Liverpool in 1895  His father was from Manchester and his mother from Liverpool. John was the eldest of four surviving children;  he had one sister, Norah, and two brothers, Henry and Laurence.  Three others sadly died young. The Carrolls and McGraths seem to have been next door neighbours in Field Street for some years. The McGraths have a history of tailors in the family.

In 1901 the family is at 19 Field Street, Everton. They live in a boarding house run by William’s widowed mother Ellen. William is a tailor’s presser. John is 3 years old.

Henry attended SFX Junior School from 1905.

In 1911 his mother, Catherine, and the four children are at 39 Canterbury Street. She is listed as married but her husband is not in the household. It is possible that he was in hospital at the time as he died in October that year. Catherine is a tailoress (wardrobe dealer).  John is 13, an errand boy. Sister Norah is 11; his brothers are 10 and 7.  His father possibly died later that year.

John enlisted on 9^th November 1914, as Private 22637 joining the 20^th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment. He gives his age as 19 years and 3 months, when in fact he had only turned 17 in August.  He gives his occupation as clerk. He is described as being 5’3 and a half inches tall, weighing 107 lbs, with blue eyes and brown hair. He gives his next of kin as his mother, Catherine Carroll, of 35 Canterbury Street, Islington, Liverpool. This was later cross out and replace by 42 Salisbury Street, Islington. While training at Prescott, John was confined to barracks for three days for insolence to an NCO.

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. 

John shipped to France with his battalion, arriving at Boulogne on 07^th November 1915.

In December the 20^th Battalion is sent to Bienvillers on the Somme front.  In May the Pals battalions come out of the line and move to Abbeville for specialist training for the “Big Push”. On 3^rd June 1916 John was attached to the 89^th Infantry Brigade as a Signaller.  He rejoined his battalion in the field on 13^th June. John survived the first day of the Battle of the Somme, in which the 20^th Bn took its objective at Maricourt with 100 casualties of all ranks.  On the 2^nd the battalion was holding captured trenches and sent out two patrols to Bernafay Wood, where they captured 17 prisoners.  The Battalion was shelled heavily at intervals day and night, causing casualties.

On the 3^rd the battalion held the same positions; they were shelled heavily and had a number of casualties (two killed and about 30 wounded).  At 8 p.m. the battalion less No.4 company took over trenches occupied by the 19^th Bn Manchester Regiment. 

Casualties: Other Ranks – 4 killed, and 45 wounded.  Private John Carroll was one of the casualties on this day.  He was killed in action, aged 18. (Graham Maddocks shows 12 of the 20^th KIA on this date).

His body was not recovered from the battlefield or was subsequently lost as his name is recorded on the Thiepval Memorial.

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 01^st 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.”

He was reported killed in the Liverpool Daily Post on 14th August 1916.

He was awarded all three medals and his effects went to his mother, Catherine, who was then living at 67 Rupert Hill, Everton. 

John is commemorated on the following Memorials;

Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall, Panel 10 Left 

St. Francis Xavier RC Church on the  Pieta “Sorrowful Mother” war memorial tablet. 

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