Pte 57832 Joseph Rock

Joseph was baptised on the 01st December 1896 at All Saints, Fulwell, Sunderland.

He had an elder sister Sarah, born in 1889, and by 1891 coal mining has taken them to Hamilton, Lanarkshire, a coal mining area about 12 miles southeast of Glasgow, where they are found at 30 Austin Street.  His father is 40, a coal miner, his mother is 36, son John Rock is 11, their daughter Sarah is one year old.

 

His father died in the summer of 1897 (the death record gives his age as 44 but this does not match his age on the previous census).  Joseph would have been under one year old.

 

In 1901 his widowed mother, 44, no occupation, is living with with Sarah, 12, Mary, 10, and Joseph 4, at 19 Fulwell Road, where Joseph lives the rest of his life.

 

The row of terraced houses is still there today, opposite the Cambridge pub.

 

The 1911 Census shows the family living at 19 Fulwell Road Sunderland. His mother Mary is shown as a widow aged 53, born 1858 in Sunderland as were her children. Sarah aged 21, and Mary aged 18, are spinners of hemp in a ropery and Joseph aged 15, born 1896 a miner below ground. His mother states she has had ten children (from two marriages), of whom four have died.

 

He enlisted in Sunderland and was originally 15827, Army Cyclist Corps. Based on the amount of the War Gratuity, he enlisted in late 1915 or early 1916.

Following a transfer he was serving in the 19^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 57832 when he was killed in action on the 22^nd March, 1918, aged 21, during the German Spring Offensive.

The Battalion diary gives an insight into the events of the day:

22^nd  GERMAINE – HAM- MOYENCOURT

The battalion moved up accordingly being in position at 6:30 a.m. About 3pm the enemy attacked the left of our position and advanced on our left flank towards FLUQUIERES. At 4:30 pm an attack was launched on our front and the enemy forced his way through on our right. The remainder of the Battalion was forced to retire to south of FLUQUIERES. During this engagement the Battalion lost 11 Officers and About 21 O.R. The order was given to retire to the defences at HAM. The Battalion by this time was very weak, and passing through the 20^th Division took up positions in HAM, as ordered, getting into position at 2am.

Joseph has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial.

The POZIERES MEMORIAL relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 4 August 1930.

His Army effects and a War Gratuity of £10-10s went to his mother Mary, still living at 19 Fulwell Road.  She was awarded a pension of 10/- a week from October 1918, increased to 15/- from 1919 to 1920.  Various changes in the amount of pension were made in the next few years.

 

His mother appears to have died in 1929.

 

Joseph is commemorated in St. Benets Church, Sunderland and is recorded in the 1914-1918 Book of Remembrance of Holy Trinity Church, Sunderland (now held at Donnison School Heritage and Education Centre).

Joseph's step-brother was killed on the 13th Dec 1915 whilst serving as Drv 36235 Robert Ellison 94th Brigade H.Q. RFA

 

Newcastle Journal 27th Dec 1915

ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY

KILLED

Mrs Rock of 19 Fulwell Road, Sunderland has received official information that her son Gunner R. Ellison, 94th Brigade R.F.A. was killed in action on December 13th.