L/Cpl 30252 Albert Hanson

The 1891 census finds them at 54 Maitland Street, Toxteth Park with three children, Albert is 3.  His father is a commission agent.

 

By 1901 they have moved to Wavertree and are found at 5 Olive Vale, Victoria Park, where the family remains. They have six children, Albert is 13.  His father is a commission agent.  

 

In 1911 his parents and four of his siblings are still at 5 Olive Vale.  His father, 48, is a commission agent, and his mother is 49.  Gertrude 21, is a student, Mabel 19, has no occupation, George Alfred, 15, is a clerk, and Florence Lucy is 15, no occupation listed.  (Mabel married later that year and emigrated to Australia in 1912, followed by Florence Lucy in 1924.)

 

Albert Hanson, 23, also a commission agent, is one of four boarders with the Routledge family at 13 Childwall Priory Road (just over a mile away from his family home). His birthplace is given as Liverpool, which is likely an error made by the head of household as there is no Albert Hanson of this age born in Liverpool.

 

He enlisted in Liverpool, as Private 30252, 18th Battalion, King’s Liverpool Regiment.  The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he enlisted in about July 1915, and went to France in 1916.  He was promoted to Lance Corporal.  

 

His brother George served in the same battalion. He enlisted soon after war broke out, on 21st August 1914, as Private 17125, 18th K.L.R., and went to France on 7th November 1915. 

 

Albert and George saw action with the battalion during the Battle of the Somme in 1916, including that deadly first day when the 18th takes its objective, the Glatz Redoubt, incurring casualties of 500 of all ranks.  In October the battalion is in the thick of the failed attack on Transloy Ridges.  In February 1917 the Pals battalions move to trenches south of Arras, and at the end of February the Germans begin their withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line.

 

His brother George suffered a gunshot wound to the foot and was discharged in February 1917 with a Silver War Badge and a disability pension.  

 

On 9th April 1917 the Battle of Arras begins.  The 18th participates in the opening assault.

Arras 09^th April 1917

Details of the circumstances the 18^th Battalion had to contend with are illustrated below:

The battalion formed the left assaulting battalion of the brigade, the 2^nd Wiltshire Regiment being on the right, the 19^th Manchester Regiment being in support and 2^nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment furnishing “moppers -up”  for the two assaulting battalions. The brigade advance was timed to begin at ---- hour after “Zero”, suited to conform with the movements of 56^th Division and other divisions on our left further north (near Arras). This battalion’s objective was the front-line system Lion Lane on the left (exclusive) to Panther Lane on right (exclusive). This sector included the strongpoint known as “The Egg”.

The brigade advanced at prearranged time, i.e., 11.38 a.m, from position of assembly trenches south of Neuville Vitasse to German front line. This necessitated an advance across the open of at least 2,000 yards. This area up to Neuville Vitasse- Henin road was crossed in artillery formation; after this, owing to machine-gun fire and considerable resistance from German posts forward in the sunken roads, it was found necessary to deploy. During the whole movement across the open the advancing columns had been under considerable artillery fire from guns of all calibres. On gaining the position immediately in front of German line it was found that the wire was practically uncut; this wire formed two strong belts in front of German trenches. Two small gaps were eventually discovered and Second-Lieut H.F.Merry gallantly led a bombing party through them, but his three remaining men were killed as they reached the German trenches.

From the moment the battalion was “held up” in front of German wire Capt. R. W. Jones, the senior company commander on the spot, at once began the work of consolidating in front of German wire. The battalion held on in this position for the remainder of the day, until relieved by the 16^th Manchester Regiment about 3 a.m. on the 10^th of April, all the time under intense machine-gun and rifle fire.

Between 9th-10th April, 1917, the 18th King's lost 2 officers 2nd Lt. F. Ashcroft and 2nd Lt. H.G. Ewing and 59 other ranks killed. 8 other officers were wounded.  

Albert was one of the other ranks referred to who were killed in action on 09th April 1917, aged 29.

His body was not recovered or was subsequently lost as he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial in France.

The ARRAS MEMORIAL commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918, the eve of the Advance to Victory, and have no known grave. The most conspicuous events of this period were the Arras offensive of April-May 1917, and the German attack in the spring of 1918. Canadian and Australian servicemen killed in these operations are commemorated by memorials at Vimy and Villers-Bretonneux. A separate memorial remembers those killed in the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. Both cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, with sculpture by Sir William Reid Dick. The memorial was unveiled by Lord Trenchard, Marshal of the Royal Air Force on the 31 July 1932 (originally it had been scheduled for 15 May, but due to the sudden death of French President Doumer, as a mark of respect, the ceremony was postponed until July).

His parents placed a notice in the Liverpool Echo on 20th April 1917:

 

On the first anniversary of his death:

 

Soldiers’ Effects shows that his Army pay and a War Gratuity of £8 went to Grace Lee.  No pension card has been found, indicating that Albert was living independently before he enlisted and had no dependents.  

 

His mother appears to have died in April 1922 age 61.  His father remarried in 1924 to widow Rachel Ann Maria Ganderton (nee Jackson) who was born in Handsworth, Birmingham. .  

 

In 1939 his father, now 76, his date of birth recorded as 26th December 1863,  and retired, with his second wife Rachel A.M., her date of birthe recorded as 09th April 1863, is still at 5 Olive Vale.  He evidently moved out of Liverpool during the war, as he died in Dyserth, North Wales, in 1941, aged 78.

 

Rachel died in 1956 in Coventry aged 93.

 

Sadly, Albert has not been found on any memorial.