Pte 269493 Samuel Henry Derry

Samuel was baptised in St. Mary’s, Manchester, on Christmas Day 1885, his parents’ residence given as 10 Watkin Street, Lower Broughton, and his father’s occupation as finisher.

 

In 1891 the family is living at 53 Mount Street, Salford, with three children and a domestic servant. His father is an engine driver/stoker. Samuel is 5, Emily 3, and Joseph six months old.  Joseph died in 1892 aged 2, leaving Samuel as the only surviving son.

 

The 1901 census finds them at 25 Augusta Street, Pendleton.  His father, 42, is a boiler fireman, his mother is 38, Samuel is 15, a tinplate worker, Emily is 13, Lilian 7, and Elizabeth 4.

 

In 1911 they are still at 25 Augusta Street.  His father is 52, a boiler stoker for a dryer and bleacher, his mother is 49. Samuel is a general labourer in the iron works. Emily is 23, a paper sorter in a paper mill, Lily is 17, a weaver in a cotton mill, Elizabeth is 14, also in a cotton mill, ‘learning weaving’.

 

Shortly after the census, Samuel married Christina Winterburn in Salford and their daughter Christina was born on 30th June 1911.

 

Samuel enlisted in Salford in the 2/7th Bn, King’s (Liverpool) Regiment as Private 269493.  His service record has not survived so the details are not known but based on the amount of the War Gratuity, he enlisted in about October 1916. The medal Roll shows he was attached to the Royal Engineers, then transferred to the 14th Bn K.L.R., and finally to the 18th Bn K.L.R.  The 14th Bn served in the Balkans and moved to the Western Front in June 1918.  They were absorbed by the 18th Bn K.L.R. in August, becoming the 18th (Lancashire Hussars), The King’s (Liverpool Regiment).  The 100 Days Offensive, the Allied push that would eventually bring the war to an end, begins in August, and by early October the 18th Bn arrives at the Hindenburg Line in the region of Bony.  The Allies pursue the retreating German Army and on 8th November 1918, in what would be their last engagement of the war, the 18th Bn attacks the Germans near Marbaix.

At the time of his death, warfare had become mobile, with the British Army harrying the Germans, who would retreat to a position, fight, then retreat once more. The day before he was killed the Battalion had just marched from Mariollers to Marbaix in France, when it was ordered to take a position in the line near Marbaix, from the 1/5th Gloucestershire Regiment. On the following day, 8th November an attack was commenced at 07.30am supported by the 100th Battalion Machine Gun Corps and artillery fire. Despite their support, the advancing troops encountered fierce rifle and machine gun fire from the German position’s.Although the attack was eventually successful, two more officers and thirty six other ranks were to be wounded, and fourteen other ranks Killed, only three days before the Armistice.

 

Samuel was one of those 14 other ranks referred to and he was laid to rest in Dourlers Communal Cemetery Extension, Nord, France. 

Dourlers village was in German hands during almost the whole of the First World War. It was taken on 07th November 1918, after heavy fighting, by the 6th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the 1st K.O.Y.L.I. The communal cemetery was used by the Germans during the war, but in November 1918, a small extension was made by Commonwealth troops at the west end. After the Armistice, the German graves from the communal cemetery and others from the battlefields, together with Commonwealth graves from isolated positions and small cemeteries, were brought into the extension which contains 161 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 14 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to four casualties known or believed to be buried among them. The extension also contains 108 German burials, 62 of which are unidentified.

His widow Christina was  notified of his death on 26th November. 

Soldiers Effects lists his mother Emily as his sole legatee, of effects £21-19-3d and War Gratuity of £11-10s;  however this was cancelled, although no entry showing his widow Christina as legatee can be found. CWGC lists him as the son of E. Derry, of 34 Strawberry Hill, Frederick Road, Pendleton, but does not mention a widow. 

 

Christina, living with relatives at 40 Vernon Street, Salford, received a pension of £1-0s-5d a week for herself and child. 

 

His father Samuel died in 1924, aged 65 and his mother Emily died in 1938, aged 73.

 

In 1939 his widow Christina is living with a relative Jane Winterburn, still at 40 Vernon Street.  She appears to have married in 1941, and died in 1946, aged 56.

 

His daughter Christina married, lived in Manchester, and worked as a tailoress.  

 

Samuel is commemorated on the Fallen Men of Pendleton Memorial and also on his parents gravestone in Weaste Cemetery, Salford -