Pte 22099 John Alfred Harrison

• Age: 21
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 20th Btn
• K.I.A Sunday 30th July 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.

John Alfred Harrison was born on 11th May 1895 in Liverpool the son of John Alfred and Acrove Agnes Josephine Harrison (nee Vendurra). The couple were married on the 29th September 1890 at St Peter’s Priory, Seel Street. Acrove was of 43 Duke Street, father Paine deceased, whilst John was of 56 Tennyson Street, father Joseph. Acrove’s father was a Greek mariner who also ran a beer house in Duke Street as recorded in the 1871 and 1881 censuses.

John was baptised on 27th May 1895 in St. Patrick's Church, Liverpool, John was the second of their seven children, and the eldest son. He had an elder sister Mary Ethel Acrove, and younger siblings Joseph James (or John), Catharina Gertrude, Frances Helena, Albert Vendurra, and Percy Augustine. 

At the time of the 1901 Census the couple were living at 35 Merlin Street, Toxteth. John is 35 and working as a marine engineer, Acrove is 33. They have four children – Mary aged 7, John aged 5, Joseph 3 and Catherine aged 2.

Later in 1901 the couple have a daughter called Frances, in 1903 a son called Albert and in 1906 another son called Percy.

Acrove died in 1909 aged just 41 when John was 13, leaving his father with seven children, the eldest 16 and the youngest two and a half years old. She was buried on the 01st May 1909 at Ford Cemetery. 

His father, John senior, is often away at sea so the children have been split up at the time of the 1911 census. Young John Alfred aged 16 is working as a steward and is living with his aunt (his father’s sister) Eliza and her husband Edwin James Hickin who is a photographer, at 32 Alton Road Tuebrook. Also living with them are Eliza’s two children from her first marriage and three children from her marriage with Edwin and a 15-year old domestic servant.

Joseph, 13, is a boarding pupil at St. Edward's School, Thingwall, near Liverpool; Catharine, 11, and Frances, 9, are inmates in Nazareth House in Crosby, and Albert, 8, is found in Nazareth House in Widnes. Mary Ethel has not been positively identified on the census. Percy Harrison, age 4, is a boarder with John and Margaret Macdonald in Shallot Street, Toxteth Park.

John, aged 17, is found on a March 1912 crew list as a waiter on the Ivernia (Cunard Line), earning £2-10s a month, his residence 32 Alton Road. (However, John is not found on the Cunard Line Roll of Honour.)

His sister Mary married Peter Stromsoe in 1916.

John’s father, John, remarried on the 22nd September 1915 at Emmanuel C. of E. Church, Everton. His new wife, spinster Eleanor Rumsby, was aged 28 of 34 Hughes St, father Thomas Albert a labourer. They had a daughter Phyllis Irene in 1917 and lived at 73 Sutton Street, Tuebrook, Liverpool.  

John enlisted on the 06th November 1914 at Liverpool joining the 20th Battalion (No1 Company), of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 22099. He gave his age as 19 years and 186 days and his occupation as a steward. He was described as being five feet three inches tall, weighed 116lbs, 35" chest, with a fresh complexion, hazel coloured eyes, and fair hair. He stated his religion as Roman Catholic and gave as next of kin, his father, at 9 Victoria Road, Tuebrook, later changed to sister (Mary) Ethel Harrison, 23 Merlin Street. 

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.

07.11.15: Embarked for France with his battalion.

John was killed in action on the 30^th July 1916, aged 21, at the village of Guillemont, France, during the Somme Offensive. 

The 20^th King’s Battalion Diary records:

“At 4.45am prompt the attack was launched. Unfortunately, a thick mist prevailed and it was impossible to see more than 10 yards ahead. This continued until about 6 o’clock when it lifted slightly, but it was still too hazy and impossible to see what was happening 100 yards ahead. This being so, it was not surprising to find that the attacking waves were experiencing great difficulty in maintaining connection.”

At 6am, Lt. RE Melly, No.1 Company, reported that his men had taken the German Maltz Horn trench.

At 6.30am, 2/Lt. CP Moore reported that he had 150 men, 4 Stokes Mortars and 2 Lewis Guns, but he was the only officer. He also said that due to the fog, both his “flanks were in the air” i.e. he was not in contact with neighbouring troops.

At 9.10am, Moore was still not in contact at his flanks, and now he had only 75 men, he had sent out 2 patrols and neither not returned. Later Moore established communication with the French on his right.

Around 10.00am, 2/Lt Musker reported that he had just over a company with him, but his left flank was suffering from German machine gun fire. Later he reported that he had over 30 casualties from the machine gun fire. His flanks were also “in the air”. No contact was made with this party until the remnants returned around 9.30pm, all runners sent were killed or missing. The War Diary states that this group had: ”held the ground won all day, and this permitted the consolidation of the ground won on the Maltz Horn ridge with little interference from the enemy”.

Relief for 20/Kings had been planned for 11.00pm, but it was 5.00am on the 31st July before it took place, ending a tragic day for the Liverpool Pals.

Casualties for 20^th Battalion were 16 Officers and 357 Other Ranks

When darkness fell on the battlefield the 30^th Division held a line from the railway on the eastern side of Trones Wood , southwards and including Arrow Head Copse, to east of Maltz Horn Farm. On this line the division was relieved by the 55^th Division during the early hours of the 31^st July. 

The events of 30^th July 1916 were regarded at the time as Liverpool’s blackest day. There follows an extract from The History of the 89^th Brigade written by Brigadier General Ferdinand Stanley which gives an indication of the events of the day.

Guillemont

Well the hour to advance came, and of all bad luck in the world it was a thick fog; so thick that you couldn’t see more than about ten yards. It was next to impossible to delay the attack – it was much too big an operation- so forward they had to go. It will give some idea when I say that on one flank we had to go 1,750 yards over big rolling country. Everyone knows what it is like to cross enclosed country which you know really well in a fog and how easy it is to lose your way. Therefore, imagine these rolling hills, with no landmarks and absolutely unknown to anyone. Is it surprising that people lost their way and lost touch with those next to them? As a matter of fact, it was wonderful the way in which many men found their way right to the place we wanted to get to. But as a connected attack it was impossible.

The fog was intense it was practically impossible to keep direction and parties got split up. Owing to the heavy shelling all the Bosches had left their main trenches and were lying out in the open with snipers and machine guns in shell holes, so of course our fellows were the most easy prey.

It is so awfully sad now going about and finding so many splendid fellows gone.       

John was originally posted as Missing. His Aunt, Mrs Hickin, placed a notice in the Liverpool Daily Post on Thursday 31 August 1916; 

His body was not recovered or was subsequently lost as he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.

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 01st 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 earned his three medals.

His outstanding Army pay and a War Gratuity of £7-10s went to his father John, who also received John’s “small book” in March 1918. 

His father received a pension of 5/- a week, only awarded in June 1920.

In the Liverpool Echo, on the first anniversary of his death, 30th July 1917 under the heading Lost At The Battle of Guillemont, his Aunt paid tribute to Jack:

“In affectionate remembrance of Private J.A. Harrison (Jack), 4th “Pals”, killed in action July 30, 1916. (Lovingly remembered by his aunt and all at 9, Victoria Road, Tuebrook.)”

As his father was away at sea, his stepmother Eleanor returned the form for the Memorial Plaque and Scroll with a short letter, stating, "we would like to have something to remember the 'boy'"

Sadly, John has not been found on any local memorial.

In 1919 his father was at 73 Sutton Street with Joseph, 22, and Percival, 12, as well as Phyllis, 18 months old. Frances 18, and Albert 16, were still in Nazareth House. Married sister Ethel Stromsoe, 26, lived in Princes Park, and Gertrude, 20, was at Warley Barracks, Brentwood, Essex (the location of Warley Military Hospital, which suggests that she had gone into nursing).

His father had died in 1927. aged 61, and was buried on the 26th February 1927 at West Derby Cemetery, his address at the time of his death was 73 Sutton Street. However, in 1921 he and Eleanor had a son Ronald Thomas, who served as a sapper in 1 Field Sqn., Royal Engineers, in World War Two. In May 1940 the squadron, part of the 1st Armoured Division, attached to 51st (Highland) Division, was at St. Valery, near Dieppe. The division was cut off and made their last stand fighting alongside the 2nd French Cavalry Division. After an evacuation by sea proved impossible, and following the capitulation of the local French forces, Major General Fortune, the 51st Division's commanding officer, surrendered the town to the German commander, General Ernest Rommel, on 12th June. Most of the Division were taken prisoner, but Thomas was reported Missing, and later declared Killed in Action between 23rd May and 14th June 1940. Thomas was 19 years old, and now rests at St. Valery-en-Caux Franco-British Cemetery, where his headstone bears the epitaph: 

"IN MY LONELY HOURS OF THINKING, THOUGHTS OF YOU ARE EVER DEAR"

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