Pte 4489 William Henry Hughes

• Age: 28
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• K.I.A Wednesday 30th August 1916
• Commemorated at: Gorre Brit Cem, Beuvry
  Panel Ref: II.D.21

William Henry Hughes was born in 1888 in Liverpool and was the son of  John Hughes and his wife Eleanor (Ellen) (nee Hanley), of 94, Brookdale Road, Sefton Park, Liverpool.

The 1891 census finds his parents, with William, 3, and John, 4 months, living at 18 Leda Street, West Derby (near Edge Hill station). His father (place of birth Holyhead, Anglesea) is 34, employed as an estate agent, his mother Eleanor is 30, born in Liverpool. Also in the household are a number of visitors: Elizabeth Jones, a 65-year old widow born in Montgomeryshire; Martha Jones, 38, single, a draper’s assistant born in Mostyn, Flintshire; Sarah A. Jones, 35, and Mary J. Evans, 33, both born in Liverpool with three Evans children, Mary J., 4, and Bertha, 3, both born in Wigan, and John H., 1 year old, born in Tyldesley, Lancashire.

By 1901 they have moved to 22 Blantyre Road, in Toxteth Park. His father, 44, is an  estate agent’s clerk working on his own account, his mother Ellen is 40, William is 13 and John 10.  Sarah A. Jones, 44,  born in Liverpool, is still with the family, listed as a boarder, and employed as a dressmaker.

His father died at the end of 1904 aged 47 and was buried in the Unconsecrated (i.e., not Church of England) section of Toxteth Park Cemetery. 

The 1911 Census shows William Henry living at 94 Brookdale Road Wavertree Liverpool.  The head of the household Sarah Ann Jones aged 54, born 1857 no occupation listed and  was born in Lancaster. William Henry her nephew aged 23, and is working for an estate agent, also his brother John Frederick aged 20, born 1891 an apprentice to a shipping office are both living at the address.

His mother is found as a visitor at 27 Mill Lane in Southport.  Head of the household is widow Martha Garland, 60, living on private means. (Martha Jones had married Alfred Garland in 1901 and had been widowed in 1904.) Ellen is 50, also living on private means., Another visitor is Robert Parry Jones, 58, married, from Flintshire.

He enlisted in Liverpool  joining the 6th Battalion K.L.R. T.F. Reserve (Rifle) (Territorial Force). He stated his religion as Methodist. A page of his service record shows date of enlistment as 11th November 1915, and transfer from the Territorials to the 1/6th Bn. at Oswestry on 15th June 1916.

William embarked from Folkestone on 15th July 1916 for Etaples and joined 17th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment on 05th August, then 19th Battalion on the 10th August 1916.

He was serving in the 6th Battalion attached to the 19th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 4489 when he was killed in action on the 30th August 1916, aged 28, during the Somme offensive.

He now rests at Gorre British Cemetery, Beuvry, France. The Inscription on his headstone reads:

“HIS LIFE FOR HIS COUNTRY HIS SOUL UNTO GOD FROM HIS MOTHER”

The chateau at Gorre was occupied early in the war by troops serving with the British Expeditionary Force and the Indian Corps, and the cemeteries, located in the south-east corner of original the chateau grounds, were begun in the autumn of 1914. The Indian section of the cemetery was closed in October 1915, shortly before the Indian infantry divisions left France for redeployment to the Middle East.

Many of those who now lie in plots V and VI of the British section of the cemetery were killed during the Battle of Estaires in April 1918. There are now over 930 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated here. The cemetery, which was designed by Charles Holden, also contains nine war graves of other nationalities, most of them German.

Gorre Chateau during the First World War

For much of the war, the chateau stood approximately four kilometres behind a section of the British front-line that ran northward along the Aubers Ridge from Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée to Festubert. From the end of the Battle of Festubert in May 1915 until the spring of 1918, this was considered a relatively ‘quiet’ sector. The village of Gorre was occasionally bombarded by German artillery during this period, but the chateau remained intact and its rooms were used as an officer’s mess and headquarters for British units stationed in the area. The grounds of the chateau were also the site of several artillery emplacements, a rifle range and an improvised parade ground and football pitch. Throughout 1916 and ’17 British troops could be seen drilling in the fields next to the chateau or unloading supplies from barges on the La Bassée Canal, which runs just south of the village.

The British section of the cemetery was used by infantry and artillery units stationed in the area until April 1918, when the relative quiet of the sector was shattered by the German Spring Offensive and Gorre became a support post close behind the front line during the Battle of Estaire. This battle was one of two massive German assaults on the Commonwealth positions from Ypres to Festubert that became known as the Battle of the Lys. When the battle erupted on 9 April, the 55th (West Lancashire) Division occupied the front-line trenches running north from Givenchy to Richebourg L’Avoué. The Allied positions to their left, around the village of Le Touret, were held by Portuguese units.

After a preliminary artillery bombardment that began on the evening of 7 April the German Sixth Army, spearheaded by storm troops, attacked in force early on the morning of the 9th. Heavy mist enabled the attackers to get very close to the Allied lines before they were observed and Portuguese units suffered heavy casualties and began to retire. Further south, the various formations of the 55th Division were hard pressed from the outset and the front line trenches around Givenchy were the scene of fierce fighting between British and German troops. The divisional brigade holding the northern section of the British line was forced to pull back, but well-organised counter-attacks and determined defence elsewhere enabled the 55th Division to hold its ground for the rest of the battle and prevent a major German breakthrough. Fighting continued in the trenches east of Gorre until 17 April when the German forces finally broke off the attack. In just over a week of fighting almost 3,000 officers and men of the Division had been killed, wounded, or taken prisoner, but the territory over which they had fought remained in Allied hands.

Probate shows:

Hughes William Henry of 94 Brookdale Road, Liverpool rifleman 6^th King’s Liverpool regiment died 30 August 1916. Probate 2 October Liverpool to Ellen Hughes widow £113 1s.

Soldiers Effects including a War Gratuity of £3 and a pension of 7/6d a week from November 1917 o his mother Ellen.

Personal items returned:- identity disc, tobacco pouch, purse, pocket book, registered letter with safety razor blades, regimental buttons, notebook, metal cigarette case, steel mirror in case, pipe, 2 x testaments, letters and booklets.

In 1917 an In Memoriam notice was placed in the Liverpool papers on August 29th - 

“In loving memory of Rifleman W. H. Hughes (K.L.R.), elder son of the late John Hughes and of Mrs. Hughes, 94 Brookdale Road, killed in action August 29th [sic] 1916. - L. Pottinger.”

In 1919 his mother was still at 94 Brookdale Road with son John, 28.

His brother John Frederick enlisted on 07th December 1915 as Pte 43593, Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He served in the Balkans, suffering bouts of malaria, was invalided back to England in September 1918, and discharged in February 1919 with a 50% disability pension.

W. H. Hughes is commemorated on the Liverpool Institute Memorial, and on Panel 56 of Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance.

(However, a Pte. William Henry Hughes served in the 8th Bn K.L.R.  and died of influenza and sepsis on 20/01/1919 aged 26.)

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