Pte 26654 Robert Roskell

Before Robert’s birth in 1891 his parents lived in Frederick Street, Barrow, his father employed as a fireman. The family moved from Barrow-in-Furness to Ambleside in the Lake District in about 1894.

At the time of the 1901 census the family is living at Blue Hill, Ambleside, with four children.

His father is a 40 year old steam ship engineer, whilst his mother is also 40 years of age. Robert is 10 and his siblings are recorded as Morland aged 8 born in Barrow, Charlotte L. aged 6 and Hilda aged 2 were born in Ambleside.

 

In 1911 his parents, with son Morland, 18, and daughter Alice, 12, are in Ambleside, living in Low Fold. His father 50, is a steam yacht engine driver, his mother is 49. They advise that they have been married for 23 years and four of their five children have survived. His sister Charlotte, 15, has moved to Liverpool and is a confectioner apprentice at 563 West Derby Road, Tuebrook. Robert has not been found on the 1911 census; Robert had served his time as hairdresser in the village before leaving for Liverpool. A later newspaper report states that he lived in Wavertree, Liverpool, and worked as a hairdresser.

 

His only brother Morland died in 1913 at the age of 20.

Robert was a member of the YMCA and the Sons of Temperance.

He enlisted in Liverpool on the 24th May 1915 joining the 18th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 26654.

He was initially billeted at Belton Park, Grantham until September 1915 when the Battalion reached Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain for final training. He crossed to France with his Battalion on 22nd December 1915.

Robert was killed in action during the attack at Montauban on the 01^st July 1916.

18^th Battalion Diary

At 6.30am the artillery commenced an intensive bombardment of the enemy’s trenches. Zero Hour – 7.30 am – the battalion commenced to leave their trenches and the attack commenced. The attack was pressed with great spirit and determination in spite of heavy shelling and machine gun enfilade fire which caused casualties amounting to 2/3rds of the strength of the Battalion in action. The whole system of German trenches including the Glatz Redoubt was captured without any deviation from the scheduled programme. Consolidated positions and made strong points for defence against possible counter attacks.

Graham Maddocks provides more detail concerning the events of the day:

As the first three waves began to move forward towards the German reserve line, known as Alt Trench and then on to the Glatz Redoubt itself, they suddenly came under enfilading fire from the left. This was from a machine gun which the Germans had sited at a strong point in Alt Trench. The gun itself was protected by a party of snipers and bombers, who, hidden in a rough hedge, were dug into a position in Alt Trench, at its junction with a communication trench known as Alt Alley. These bombers and snipers were themselves protected by rifle fire from another communication trench, Train Alley which snaked back up the high ground and into Montauban itself. The machine gun fire was devastating and it is certain that nearly of the Battalion’s casualties that day were caused by that one gun.  

Lieutenant Colonel Edward Henry Trotter  wrote in the conclusion of his account of the days action:

I cannot speak to highly of the gallantry of the Officers and men. The men amply repaid the care and kindness of their Company Officers, who have always tried to lead and not to drive. As laid down in my first lecture to the Battalion when formed, in the words of Prince Kraft:

“Men follow their Officers not from fear, but from love of the Regiment where everything had always and at all times gone well with them”.    

Joe Devereux in his book A Singular Day on the Somme gives the Casualty Breakdown for the 18^th Battalion as Killed in Action 7 Officers and 165 men and of those who died in consequence of the wounds 3 Officers and 19 men a total of 194 out of a total loss for the four Liverpool Pals Battalions of 257. 

Robert has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.

The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916.

 

On 01st August 1932 the Prince of Wales and the President of France inaugurated the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy. The inscription reads: “Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.”

His death was reported in the Liverpool Echo on 14th August 1916:  

 

 

And a notice placed in the same edition by a friend or sweetheart:

 

 

He is commemorated on the Ambleside War Memorial.

Soldiers Effects and Pension to mother Charlotte C. The pension card in the name of his mother, now living at 32 Abbey Hey Lane, Gorton, Lancashire, shows that she was awarded a gratuity in lieu of a dependent’s pension in March 1917.  Another card shows her address as 88 Vine Street, Openshaw.  

 

His father died in 1925 aged 66, and his mother in 1931 aged 70; both are buried in Gorton Cemetery.