Pte 26656 Walter Hackett Clemson

• Age: 23
• From: Newcastle, Staffs
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Saturday 1st July 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.

26656 Private Walter Hackett CLEMSON, 18^th Battalion KLR.

Walter Hackett was born in Newcastle under Lyme, Staffordshire in 1892 the eldest of five children born to Thomas Lewis Clemson and his wife, Ellen Elizabeth (nee Hackett) who were married in 1891, registered in Cheadle. Walter had two younger brothers and two younger sisters. He was baptised on the 30^th October 1892. 

The 1901 Census shows that Walter aged 8 lived with his parents, and two siblings at 5 Croft Street, Newcastle under Lyme. His father is 37 years old, born in Shrewsbury and in business on his own account as a draper, following in his own father’s footsteps, whilst his mother is 33 and was born in Kidsgrove. His siblings are recorded as Harold S aged 5 and Doris L aged 3. Both born in Newcastle under Lyme.  Also present is a servant, Amy Jones aged 17. 

• The Cunarder Carmania in 1908, his address 5 Br? Ave, Wavertree. 

• As an Engineers boy in 1911 on the Canadian Pacific SS Lake Champlain from Liverpool to Quebec, address 58 Grant Ave.  

• In 1912 on the SS Lake Champlain. 

Walter enlisted in Liverpool on the 24th May 1915 joining the 18th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 26656.

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 crossed to France on an unknown date after 31st December 1915.  

He was killed during the attack at Montauban on 01^st July 1916, aged 23 years. 

18^th Battalion Diary:

At 6.30am the artillery commenced an intensive bombardment of the enemy’s trenches. Zero Hour – 7.30 am – the battalion commenced to leave their trenches and the attack commenced. The attack was pressed with great spirit and determination in spite of heavy shelling and machine gun enfilade fire which caused casualties amounting to 2/3rds of the strength of the Battalion in action. The whole system of German trenches including the Glatz Redoubt was captured without any deviation from the scheduled programme. Consolidated positions and made strong points for defence against possible counter attacks. 

Graham Maddocks provides more detail concerning the events of the day:

As the first three waves began to move forward towards the German reserve line, known as Alt Trench and then on to the Glatz Redoubt itself, they suddenly came under enfilading fire from the left. This was from a machine gun which the Germans had sited at a strong point in Alt Trench. The gun itself was protected by a party of snipers and bombers, who, hidden in a rough hedge, were dug into a position in Alt Trench, at its junction with a communication trench known as Alt Alley. These bombers and snipers were themselves protected by rifle fire from another communication trench, Train Alley which snaked back up the high ground and into Montauban itself. The machine gun fire was devastating and it is certain that nearly of the Battalion’s casualties that day were caused by that one gun.  

Lieutenant Colonel Edward Henry Trotter  wrote in the conclusion of his account of the days action:

I cannot speak to highly of the gallantry of the Officers and men. The men amply repaid the care and kindness of their Company Officers, who have always tried to lead and not to drive. As laid down in my first lecture to the Battalion when formed, in the words of Prince Kraft:

“Men follow their Officers not from fear, but from love of the Regiment where everything had always and at all times gone well with them”.    

Joe Devereux in his book A Singular Day on the Somme gives the Casualty Breakdown for the 18^th Battalion as Killed in Action 7 Officers and 165 men and of those who died in consequence of the wounds 3 Officers and 19 men a total of 194 out of a total loss for the four Liverpool Pals Battalions of 257.

His death was reported in the Liverpool Echo on 27^th July 1916:

Soldiers Effects to mother Ellen, no Pension record found.

Walter's body was  not recovered from the battlefield or was subsequently lost as he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial in France. 

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.”