Pte 31299 William Cochrane

• Age: 19
• From: Manchester
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• K.I.A Monday 9th April 1917
• Commemorated at: St Martin Calvaire Brit Cem
  Panel Ref: I.A.15

William Cochrane was born March 1898 at Chorlton, Manchester. He was the son of the late Alexander and Eliza Cochrane (nee Smith) Cochrane who were married in 1896. He was baptised on 16th Feb 1898 at St Gabriel, Hulme, his father was a plumber of 100 Chester Street.

The 1901 Census shows the family living at 13 Silk Street, South Manchester. His father, Alexander is aged 42, born 1859 in Manchester and his occupation is listed as a plumber whilst his mother, Eliza is aged 25, born 1876 also in Manchester. They have three children all born in Manchester, Alexander aged 5, born 1896, William aged 3, born 1898 and Eliza aged 1, born 1900. They also have the mother in law Eliza Hilbert who is a widow aged 44, born 1857 occupation laundress and a boarder named George Porter aged 48 born 1853 a bill poster from Leeds.

The 1911 Census shows the family have moved to 48 Cowcill Street, Chorlton. His father Alexander is aged 48, a plumber whilst his mother Eliza is aged 33, they have been married 16 years and have 5 children. Alexander is aged 15, a newsboy, William aged 13, also a newsboy, Eliza aged 11, Annie aged 9 and Emma 6. Mother-in-law Eliza Hilbert 55 is still present.

He enlisted in Manchester originally joining the 4th Battalion K.L.R. but following a transfer he was serving in the 19^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 31299.

William was killed in action on the 09^th April 1917 aged 19 during the opening phase of the Battle of Arras.

17^th,  19^th & 20th  Battalion at the  Battle of Arras 09^th April 1917

Everard Wyrall records the events of the day  in Volume 2 of his History of the King's Regiment (Liverpool).

The 89^th Brigade formed up for the attack with the 19^th King's on the right and the 20^th King’s on the left. The 17^th King’s supplied the “mopping up" parties and he 2nd Bedfords were in close support.

It was just after 3pm when the advance began “According to scheduled time the waves advanced in good style and with determination; everyone was cheerful and in the best of spirits”

That advance is described by others as magnificent. From the OP’s the observing officers saw a wonderful sight – long lines of men advancing steadily up a long and gradual slope towards the enemy’ front line. Then suddenly they disappeared. The observers quite pardonably, imagined that the German front line had fallen into the hands of the assaulting troops and that the latter were on the way to the enemy’s support line. Alas something very different had happened. When the advancing troops had reached the summit of the long slope up which they advanced the ground suddenly dipped before the German front line , and when the observing officers thought they  were already in the Bosche lines they had not, as a matter of fact, even reached the wire. What the observers took to be the front line was really the support line; the front line could not be seen  - it lay just behind the crest of that slight rise in the ground.

The attacking waves of the 19^th King’s got within 100 yards of the German wire but were then held up. They were faced by three belts of entanglements, practically untouched by our artillery, and nothing could be done but to dig in or else take shelter in the many shell- shell-with which “No Man’s Land" was pitted. By this time the battalion’s losses were very heavy, and when darkness fell “A" and “B" Companies (about 140 in all) lay in shell-holes, two or three hundred yards north east of St. Martin, but just south of the Cojeul River, and “C" and “D" Companies (140 all ranks) were along the river bank, but on the northern side about 150 yards north east of St. Martin.

The first waves of the 20^th King’ advanced at 3.7pm. At 4pm Lieut Beaumont, commanding “A" Company, reported that he had had some forty casualties in passing through the enemy’s barrage. The next message, timed 4.40pm, stated that the position of the battalion at that period was on a crest in front of the enemy’s wire and about 100 yards from it. On the right the 21^st Division was observed to have penetrated the enemy’s front line, but in the left the right Battalion of the 21^st Brigade (the Wilts) was on the St. Martin- Neuville Vitasse road; the left flank of the 20^th King's was, therefore, “ in the air”.

Urgent messages were sent up from Battalion Headquarters to “push on, keeping in touch with right” But little else could be accomplished until those formidable belts of wire had been cut sufficiently to allow the rapid passage of the attacking troops, headed by their bombers.

At 9:30 that night 89^th Brigade Headquarters ordered both the 19^th and 20^th Battalions to withdraw, the former to the two sunken roads running south east from St. Martin, the latter to north west of St. Martin; the guns had been ordered to cut the enemy’s wire during the night in preparation for another attack during the 10^th April.

Of the 17^th King’s  - the “moppers up" – there is little to relate. There was nothing to “mop up" so that they did not function. Yet they had shared all the perils of the advance, and when  after they had fallen back and at midnight held the following positions, “B", “C", and “D" Companies in and around the sunken road north of Boiry-Becquerelle and “A" Company in trenches west of Henin, they lost 2 officers and 16 other ranks killed, and 3 officers and 48 other ranks wounded. 

He now rests at St Martin-Calvaire British Cemetery, France. 

The village of St. Martin-sur-Cojeul was taken by the 30th Division on 9 April 1917. It was lost in March 1918 but retaken in the following August. St. Martin Calvaire British Cemetery was named from a calvary which was destroyed during the war. It was begun by units of the 30th Division in April 1917 and used until March 1918. Plot II was made in August and September 1918. The cemetery contains 228 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, five of them unidentified. There are also three German graves within the cemetery. The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

A notice in the local press dated 26th April 1917:

COCHRANE - Killed in action on April 9th 1917, Private W. Cochrane, 31299, King's Liverpool Regiment, age 19 years.

Sleep on, dear son, in a soldier's grave,

A grave we may never see,

But as long as life and memory last,

We will always think of thee.

Sadly missed by his broken-hearted and widowed mother, brother (in France) and his three sisters - 48 Cowcill Street, Moor Street West, Chorlton-on-Medlock.

Manchester Evening News 27th April 1917

COCHRANE - Killed in action, WILLIAM, much esteemed co-worker at the P.O. Telephones, West Didsbury.

The New World honours him,

For England's freedom made his own more sure.

Sadly missed by all.

His father died on the 30th April 1918 and was buried at Southern Cemetery, Chorlton-Cum-Hardy.

His brother died on the 29th August 1918 serving as Pte Alexander Cochrane 301477 1/8th Manchester Regt.

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/206541/a-cochrane/

His brother's death featured in the Manchester Evening News on 25th September 1918;

COCHRANE - In loving memory of my dear sons Private A. COCHRANE, Manchester Regiment, age 22, killed in action, August 29, 1918. Also his beloved brother Private W. COCHRANE, age 19, King's Liverpool Regiment, killed in action, April 9, 1917. - Deeply mourned and sadly missed by their sorrowing MOTHER, three SISTERS, GRANNY, and Uncle TOM. - 48 Cowcill Street, C. on M., Manchester.

It is only a mother who knows the sorrow,

It is only a mother who knows the pain

Of losing her sons she loved so dearly,

And knows she will never see them again

The Soldiers Effects and Pensions for both Alexander and William were sent to his mother Eliza, 48 Cowcill Street.

Their mother died on the 11th October 1938, aged 60.

Probate was granted in Manchester as follows:

Cochrane Eliza of 71 Higher Cambridge Street Manchester 15 widow died 11 October 1938 probate Manchester 7 November to Emma Chapman and Annie Milner married women. Effects £70 2s 11d.

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