Pte 23385 George Hyland

• Age: 39
• From: Kirkdale, Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Sunday 20th August 1916
• Commemorated at: Gorre Brit Cem, Beuvry
  Panel Ref: II.D.13

George Hyland was born in Kirkdale, Liverpool on the 09th December 1877 and was baptised at St.Augustine's R.C. Church, Liverpool on the 16th December. He was the son of George Hyland and his wife Bridget (nee Malone) who were both natives of Laois (Queens County), Ireland, although at least one Census record shows Bridget's birthplace as Liverpool. They married in Liverpool in 1859 and had nine children, of which two appear to have died in infancy.

The 1881 Census finds the family at 18 Saltney Street, with five children. His father is 50, employed as a dock labourer, his mother is 42. Mary Ann, 18, and Bridget, 16, both work as tailoresses. John, 11, is at school, Margaret is 5, and George 3 years old.

His mother died later that year, aged 43, and was buried on the 23rd November at Ford Cemetery, her address at the time of ther death was 3 Court, Saltney Street. Liverpool. 

George attended St. Anne’s Roman Catholic Primary School in Overbury Street, and St. Edward’s College (previously the Catholic Institute). (School records give his birthdate as 18th December 1877.) George’s name does not appear on the Institute WW1 memorial.

The 1891 Census shows the family living at Blackstone Street, Liverpool. His father, George, is a widower aged 60, born 1831 and employed as a dock labourer and born in Ireland. He is living with five of his children at the time of the Census; Patrick aged 30, born 1861 and employed as a pawnbroker’s assistant, John aged 20, born 1871 is a sailor, Margaret aged 15, born 1876 has no occupation listed, George aged 12 is a scholar. His daughter Mary Ann aged 28, born 1863 and married to Charles Phillips also aged 28 and a sailor are also living at the address with their daughter Bridget aged 1, born 1890.  

By 1901 George was living with his widowed brother, James, at 88 & 90 Great Howard Street, Liverpool. George was aged 23and a pawnbroker's assistant and his brother, aged 34, was a pawnbroker's manager.

His father was living in Seaforth at 17 Corinthian Street and is still working as a dock labourer, as is son John, 31. Patrick, 40, is a pawnbroker’s manager, widowed daughter Bridget Diaman is 36, and granddaughter Mary Phillips, age recorded as 8 years.

His father died in March 1911 at the age of 81, and was buried on the 7th March at Ford Cemetery, his address at the time of his death was 52 Kendrick Street.   

The 1911 Census finds George, aged 32, working as a dock labourer and living at 52 Kendrick Street, Seaforth with his married sister Margaret McNulty, the wife of Henry McNulty and their five children.

He enlisted on the 18th November 1914 at Seaforth, Liverpool and gave his age as 36 years and 11 months, his address 68 Derby Rd, Kirkdale and his occupation as a general labourer. He was described as being five feet three inches tall and weighed 120lbs, 35” chest. With no parents alive, his brother, James, would have been his next of kin.   

He was posted on 29th November 1914 to the 12th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment.

His service records show:-

29.11.14 - Posted to the 12/K.L.R.

21.07.15 - Transferred to the 15/K.L.R.

29.12.15 - Posted to 13/K.L.R at Etaples, France. 

30.12.15 - Arrived at 25 I.B.Depot.

23.01.16 - To No.3 Entrenching.

24.02.16 - To duty with Btn.

23.03.16 - Wounded in action(shell shock) and moved to 7 F.A.

24.03.16 - Transferred via 17 CCS to 13 S.Hosp at Boulogne.

27.03.16 - Returned to England on board the Hospital Ship Cambrai. He was in hospital in Leicester until the 17th April 1916 (19 days in total) with a contusion to left forehead. 

08.05.16 - At home posted again to 15/K.L.R.

23.06.16 - Rejoined the B.E.F. in France via Folkestone and again posted to the 13/K.L.R.

11.07.16 - Posted to the 18th Battalion K.L.R.

19.07.16 - Attached to Machine Gun School. (don’t see that on the page)

20.08.16 - KIA.

The Battalion Diary for 20th August 1916 records the following:

 7.50 pm. Enemy sprung a mine (A.9 b. 23) in front of our line. This involved I sap & shook our parapets in places. Our artillery barrage excellenmt & also our Stokes and Trench mortars, rifle and Lewis Gun fire. Consolidation and occupation of the new crater was at once proceeded with and good observation post secured. Enemy oppostiion feeble. 

Casualties 3 Killed.

Reconnoitring patrols went out and found nothing special.

Casualties on 20th Aug.

16646 Corporal A.J.Campbell died of wounds (shell) 

16799 L/Cpl J.Currie killed (rifle bullet)

23385 Pte G.Hyland killed (mine explosion)

26101 Pte J.Quinn

32618 Pte S.M.Roe

11621 Pte A.Rockcliffe

 He was serving in the 18th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 23385 when he was killed in action on the 20th August 1916, aged 38, during the Somme offensive.

The Battalion Diary for 20th August 1916 records the following: 

Givenchy (Left)

In Trenches:

Enemy showed somewhat increased artillery & rifle grenade activity. At 4pm a combined bombardment of the enemy salient at A.9 d. 77 took place and was very successful. 

7.50 pm. Enemy sprung a mine (A.9 b. 23) in front of our line. This involved I sap & shook our parapets in places. Our artillery barrage excellenmt & also our Stokes and Trench mortars, rifle and Lewis Gun fire. Consolidation and occupation of the new crater was at once proceeded with and good observation post secured. Enemy oppostiion feeble. 

Casualties 3 Killed.

Reconoitring patrols went out and found nothing special.    

George now rests at Gorre British Cemetery, Beuvry, France.

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.

George was reported killed in Liverpool Daily Post on the 25th September 1916:

KILLED.  

King’s (Liverpool Regt.) - Cannon, 58028, D. (Ramsey, Isle of Man); Currie, 16799, Actg. L.-CpL J.; Darcy, 14328. J.; Dodson, 26088, J.; Pry, 25139, J.; Hyland, 23385, G.; Kelly, 28206, A. (Ashton-under-Lyne); King, 8990, (Ellesmere Port); M'Henry, 12197, J.; Mawdesley, 8581, R.; Winrow, 6256, O. (Great Crosby).

George received his three medals.

His possessions were forwarded to brother James Hyland, 16 Angleton Street, Liverpool.

Soldiers Effects, army pay of £6 16s 2d and a War Gratuity of £8 shared by his sister Bridget Reynolds, brothers John and James, nieces Mary A. and Bridget Philips and brother-in-law Henry McNulty. 

George is commemorated on the Waterloo with Seaforth Civic Memorial.

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