Pte 269834 Peter Holcroft

• Age: 31
• From: Tyldesley Lancs
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• K.I.A Tuesday 31st July 1917
• Commemorated at: Menin Gate Memorial
  Panel Ref: Panel 4 & 6

Peter Holcroft was born in 1886 in Tyldesley, Lancashire. There is no child by the name of Peter Holcroft recorded as born in the correct time span and with parents named John and Jane as the Commonweath War Graves Commission records state his parents to be named. However there is a Peter Howcroft and over the course of the three censuses that record his family, they are known as Holcroft in 1891, Howcroft in 1901 and 1911 and Holcroft on Peter’s marriage certificate.

Peter’s parents were John Howcroft and his wife Jane (nee Morris) who married on 30th October 1870 at St. John The Baptist Church, Atherton. Peter was their youngest child and had been baptised in July 1886 in St George’s Church, Tyldesley.

At the time of the 1891 census the 4 year old Peter lived with his family at 147 Shuttle Street, Tyldesley. There were many collieries in the area and his father John was a coal miner of 40 years of age who had been born in Bedworth, Warwickshire. His mother Jane was 43 and had been born in Little Hulton, Lancashire. Their oldest four children, who had all been born in Atherton, were all working in a cotton mill – Robert aged 20, a piecer, Prudence aged 18 a roller coverer, Mary 16, a tenter and John aged 12 a circler. There was also Ada aged 9 who like Peter had been born in Tyldesley.

On the 14th December 1891 Peter’s father suffered an accident at work in which his “legs were broken by coal falling when taking out sprags”. The pit where he worked , the Nelson Pit belonging to William Ramsden, had been the site of a serious accident in October 1883 when six men died as a result of the cage rope breaking sending them plummeting to their deaths down the shaft. There was also an accident at another of Ramsden’s pits, the Wellington, in October 1895 where five men died in an explosion due to firedamp. One of those men was William Pollitt who was conveyed to his resting place at Tyldesley Cemetery by sixteen men one of whom was John Howcroft.

Peter’s brother Robert married in 1898 and by 1901 John, still working as a miner, and the family were living at 51 Shakerley Road. Robert had married in 1898, but the rest of the five children were living at home with their parents. Prudence, Mary and John were still working in the cotton mill, Ada was a dressmaker and 14 year old Peter was a grocers shop assistant. John married in 1903.

The 1911 census shows Peter’s parents had been married for 40 years and that Jane had borne six children who were all living. Peter’s father was still a coal miner. There was only Prudence and Peter now living at home, Prudence still a roller coverer and Peter still a grocer’s assistant all at the same address as in 1901.

Prior to Peter’s enlistment he had been employed at the Tyldesley Co-Operative Society’s grocery department before receiving an appointment at Garston, Liverpool where he was living when he married Hilda Grundy at St Mark's Church, Worsley on the 03rd June 1914, Peter was a 27 year old provision manager of Garston, father John Holcroft, whilst Hilda was a 26 year old shorthand typist of Old Hall Farm Lane, Worsley, father Joshua Grundy.

Peter enlisted in Garston, Liverpool and was serving in the 17th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 269834 when he was killed in action on the 31st July 1917 aged 31 on the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres, better known as the Battle of Passchendaele. On that day, the 89th Brigade was to follow up the attacks of the 21st and 90th Brigades and once their objectives had been taken, to go through them and secure a line of strong points on the German third line. The 89th Brigade line of attack was from the South

West corner of Polygon Wood, to the Menin Road. The 17th Battalion The King’s Liverpool Regiment was on the left of the attack, and the 20th to the right, with the 19th Battalion and the 2nd Battalion The Bedfordshire Regiment, in Divisional Reserve.

The Battalion moved into assembly positions east of Maple Copse between 05.00 and 05.20am, they were heavily shelled and suffered many casualties. At 07.50 they began to advance with the 17th Battalion on the left, and the 20th on the right, the whole time under heavy shell fire. On reaching their position which was the Blue Line , troops of both the 21st and 90th Brigades were still pinned down and thus any attempt at further progress were futile.

Despite this they pushed on until their flank was just touching Clapham Junction. They then dug in and awaited the inevitable bombardment which hit them soon after. Despite this, they held onto the ground.

During the action and their time in the line the 17th Battalion lost three officers and 79 men killed or died of wounds, and four officers and 198 men wounded. They were eventually relieved on the night of 3rd -4th August.

No letters had been received for some time past from Peter Holcroft of the King’s Liverpool Regiment his wife communicated with his officer and the following letter has since been sent to her by a Lieutenant of deceased’s battalion:-

“I regret to inform you that your husband is missing. We have been waiting to see if we should get news of him from the hospitals, but unfortunately we have not heard about him up to now. I am pleased to inform you that he reached his objective, which was attacked on July 31st, so his great sacrifice was not in vain. He was a good man, and well liked by his fellows. I regret very much that I can give you no hope of his being alive, as the men saw no more of him after reaching the objective. It will afford you some consolation to know that his death would be sudden and without pain otherwise the stretcher bearers would have found him. I beg to offer you my very deepest sympathy in your great loss.”

Peter's body was not recovered or was subsequently lost as he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres in Belgium.

The site of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men who passed through it on their way to the battlefields. It commemorates casualties from the forces of Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and United Kingdom who died in the Salient. In the case of United Kingdom casualties, only those prior 16 August 1917 (with some exceptions). United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after that date are named on the memorial at Tyne Cot, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war. New Zealand casualties that died prior to 16 August 1917 are commemorated on memorials at Buttes New British Cemetery and Messines Ridge British Cemetery.

The YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL now bears the names of more than 54,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield with sculpture by Sir William Reid-Dick, was unveiled by Lord Plumer on 24 July 1927.