He originally enlisted in the 17th (Pals) Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 15211.

Civil and Military Gazette 16^th February 1915 :

The undermentioned to be temporary second-lieutenants- Dated 9. Nov. Robert Denzil Paterson;  

He won a commission and was serving in the 20th Battalion, King's Liverpool Regiment when in April 1916, he attended a course of instruction at the 4th Army School and on 26th June, in the front line trenches at Maricourt on the Somme, he suffered shell shock when the Germans laid down a heavy artillery barrage which killed or wounded sixty officers and men.

The Civil and Military Gazette of 08^th July 1916 reported as follows: 

Wounded. 

Lieut. R. D. Paterson, (Liverpools). 

He must have been slightly wounded again, or reported sick, in early September, as the 20th Battalion War Diary records that on 05th September 1916 he returned from the Field Ambulance and took over command of No.2 Company, when it was in Brigade Reserve at Gorre, near Givenchy. 

He was killed in action just over a month later on 12th October 1916, on the Somme.

According to the 20^th Bn War Diary, on 10th October 1916 the battalion marched from Dernancourt via Mametz to Bazentin Le Grand where it bivouacked for the night. The next day the battalion moved up to site for assembly trenches, arriving about 11 p.m., where it dug in two good trenches, Nos.1 and 2 Coys front and Nos.3 and 4 Coys in rear.

From the War Diary:

Near Eaucourt L’Abbaye.  12/10/1916. The 4^th British and 6^th French armies continued the attack. Zero 2.5 p.m.  The whole XVth Corps attacked […]  The attack of 89^th Inf Bde was carried out with 2^nd Bn Bedf Regt on right, 17^th Bn KLR on left, 20^th Bn KLR in support, 19^th Bn KLR in reserve.  Battalions attacked in four waves. On the departure of the attacking battalions Nos. 1 and 2 companies advanced, each in two waves, to garrison the front line trench vacated by 2^nd Bn Bedf Regt on right and 17^th KLR on left. On Nos 1 and 2 Coys vacating front assembly trench, it was occupied by two platoons of Nos. 3 and 4 Coys respectively, from rear assembly trench. As the assaulting waves left their trenches they were met by intense machine gun fire, especially on our left. The enemy also opened heavy barrages on our front support and assembly trenches. […] Capt. H. Beckett, commanding No.1 company, reached the front line with few casualties, but Lieut R.D. Paterson leading No.2 company was killed. His company also had few casualties. The assaulting battalions were held up by very heavy machine gun fire, and made little progress.  […] At 4.20 p.m. two platoons, No.4 Coy, under Cpl Brighouse, were sent up to reinforce the left, and No.3 Coy under Cpl Sutton followed at 4.45 p.m.  Battalion HQ moved up to front line at 4.55 and remaining two platoons of No.4 Coy moved up to join Cpl Brighouse. 

Casualties during action: 

Officers – Killed Lieut. R.D. Paterson, 2^nd Lieut G.L. Grennan, Wounded – 2^nd Lieuts A.E. Griffin, L.E. Mclean Hayes, C. Buttemer, Wounded Cpl g. Brighouse.

Other Ranks killed – 20. 

On that day the objectives were the German front line trenches near Flers, which were attacked by the 89th Brigade. The 2nd Battalion The Bedfordshire Regiment was on the right, the 17th Battalion The King’s Liverpool Regiment was on the left, and the 20th Battalion was in support. The 19th Battalion was in reserve. The attack commenced at 14.05 and was mounted in two waves. As the attackers left their trenches, they were met with intense machine gun fire and a fierce bombardment was also mounted on the front, support and assembly trenches. As the 20th Battalion moved up to occupy the old front line, recently vacated by the first two waves of attackers, it was hit by this German barrage and sustained some Casualties.

By this time, the first waves had been held up on the German wire, and could not go any further and as a result, some of No.3 and No.4 Companies were sent forward to reinforce the line, and they began to dig in, just in front of the old British front line. By nightfall, all the 20th Battalion was in the trenches previously held by the 17th Battalion, but overall, only about two hundred yards had been gained along the Brigade front, for the loss of many casualties. Apart from Lieutenant Paterson, the 20th Battalion lost twenty nine other ranks killed or died of wounds on that day. Paterson was aged twenty three.

He now rests at Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval commemorated on a Special Memorial. His headstone has no private family inscription.

Caterpillar Valley was the name given by the army to the long valley which runs West to East, past "Caterpillar Wood", to the high ground at Guillemont. Longueval village is on the Northern crest of this valley and 500 metres West of the village, on the South side of the road to Contalmaison, is Caterpillar Valley Cemetery.

Caterpillar Valley was captured during a successful night assault by the 3rd, 7th and 9th Divisions on Bazentin Ridge on 14 July 1916. It was lost in the German advance of March 1918 and recovered by the 38th (Welsh) Division on 28 August 1918, when a little cemetery was made (now Plot 1 of this cemetery) containing 25 graves of the 38th Division and the 6th Dragoon Guards. After the Armistice, this cemetery was hugely increased when the graves of more than 5,500 officers and men were brought in from other small cemeteries, and the battlefields of the Somme. The great majority of these soldiers died in the autumn of 1916 and almost all the rest in August or September 1918.

CATERPILLAR VALLEY CEMETERY now contains 5,573 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 3,798 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 32 casualties known or believed to be buried among them, and to three buried in McCormick's Post Cemetery whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.

Both cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

Robert’s death was reported in the Liverpool Echo on 17th October 1916:  

DEATHS – Killed in Action – PATTERSON – October 12 killed in action Lieutenant Robert Denzil Paterson, King’s Liverpool regiment so of the late Robert Paterson and Mrs Noble of Rock Ferry.

Also a more detailed report appeared in the Liverpool Echo of 18th October 1916:

Lieutenant Robert Denzil Paterson, K.L.R., is officially reported killed in action on the 12th inst. Lieutenant Paterson, universally loved and known as "Roy," was one of the most distinguished scholars of Birkenhead School, and took his P.A. degree at Clare College, Cambridge University, in 1914. He was looking forward to a scholastic career, but on the outbreak of the war he enlisted as a private, being quickly offered a commission as second-lieutenant, and a little later, in 1915 was promoted to a full lieutenancy. He left for France in November 1915. He spent the winter in the trenches, and acted as adjutant of his battalion. His high intelligence and devotion to his military duties received the warm praise of the entire command, and justified his imminent appointment as captain. But his brilliant career was cut short in last week's fighting. Roy Paterson was well known and loved in Rock Ferry, where the keenest sympathy is felt for his relatives. His grandfather will be remembered as twice Mayor of Birkenhead. In the Birkenhead Football Club and the Rock Ferry Cricket Club he will be long remembered. He was in his twenty-fourth year.  

The Master of Clare College wrote:

‘As soon as your son came up, his energy and personality won him the regard and affection of all who knew him, and his memory will not soon fail here.’

He was a member of Rock Ferry Cricket Club and appears in Wisden on the Great War: The Lives of Cricket's Fallen 1914-1918 as follows:

LT ROBERT DENZIL PATERSON (The King's Liverpool Regiment), killed on October 12, aged 23, played with success for the Rock Ferry CC. He was educated at Birkenhead School and Clare College, Cambridge.  

Soldiers Effects went his mother Mrs Florence Noble, no Pension record has been found.

Robert is also commemorated on the following Memorials:

Birkenhead Park Rugby Club

Birkenhead School 

The Old Birkonian Society

Birkenhead War Memorial, Hamilton Square

Clare College, Cambridge 

CWGC record his next of kin as: Son of Mrs. F. Noble, of Oxenford, Rock Ferry, Birkenhead, Cheshire.

The extract below as taken from Liverpool's Scroll of Fame.

Robert Denzil Paterson was another one of our public school boys who gave his life in the cause of right. The son of the late Mr. Robert Paterson and Mrs. M Noble, of Rock Ferry, he was born on December 18th, 1892, and was killed in action in France on October 12th, 1916.

His scholastic career was a highly successful one. He entered Birkenhead School in 1902, where he became school prefect, head of the house, and captain of cricket and football elevens. On leaving in 1911, he went up to Clare College, Cambridge, where again he gained his place in the cricket and football teams, edited the magazine, became president of the Debating Society, and was a member of the Hawker Club. After taking his degree he went as a master to Copthorn School in Sussex, but on the outbreak of war he was one of the first to respond to his country's call, and joined the ranks. His stirling qualities were quickly recognised and he obtained a commission in one of the "Pals" battalions of the King's (Liverpool Regiment). It was during the first Battle of the Somme that he met his death, which occurred between Geuedecourt and La Sars. At the time he was acting Captain and Adjutant.

In offering his sincerest sympathy to the bereaved relatives, The Colonel of Lieut. Paterson's regiment declared that "he died doing his duty gallantly to the end,"  and the Major wrote the following tribute to him:- "He was a very capable and keen officer, and one in whom I had every confidence. He will be a great loss to the army and the country." 

Another officer who knew him more intimately wrote:- "It certainly requires the very highest form of courage to stick on when things are as terrible as they were on the Somme, and I know from various sources that Roy refused several times to leave his men when he might very well have done so, simply because he had a strong sense of honour and of duty. I knew him as an excellent officer myself, and several others, as well as officers, have told me he was both courageous and efficient in France.” 

His mother died, aged 77, in 1939.

We currently have no further information on Robert Denzil Paterson, if you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.