Capt Arthur de Bells Adam (MC)
1885 - 1916

CPL David Wallace Crawford
1887 - 1916

Lce-Corpl John Joseph Nickle
1894 - 1916

Pte 17911 Morton Neill
1897 - 1916

Lieut Edward Stanley Ashcroft
1883 - 1918

Pte 90920 William Rothwell

Age: 19
From: Wigan, Lancs
Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
K.I.A Friday 22nd March 1918
Commemorated at: Pozieres Memorial
Panel Ref: P21-23

William was born in the first quarter of 1899 in Wigan and was the son of William Rothwell and his wife Margaret Ann (nee Turton), of 32, Bridge St., Wigan. His parents were both born in Wigan, married in 1888 at All Saints, Wigan. They were to have nine children. Their first child, called William, died at a few months old. William had older siblings Elizabeth (Lizzie) and James, and younger siblings Robert, Thomas, Eliza, Mary Ellen, and Edward.

In 1901 the family is living at 32 Bridge Street, Wigan, where William lived all his life. They have four children. His father is a cotton mill labourer. William is 2.

In 1911, still living in Bridge Street, in two rooms now with eight children. His father is 44, a general labourer in a cotton mill, his mother is 42, Lizzie is 20, a domestic servant, James, 16, is a carter for a coal bagger. William 12, Robert, 10, Thomas, 8, and Eliza, 6, are at school. Mary Ellen is 3 and Edward is 6 months old.

He enlisted in Wigan, and served as Pte. 74156, 51st (Graduated) Bn, King’s Liverpool Regiment, before being transferred to the 17th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 90920. The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he served for 14 months, enlisting at the beginning of 1917, perhaps after he turned 18 years old. He must have lied about his age in order to serve overseas. He was aged 19 when he was killed in action on the 22^nd March, 1918, during the German Spring Offensive.

The German Spring Offensive (Operation Michael), the German push to end the war, began on 21st March. The Pals battalions, in Corps Reserve, receive orders at 5 a.m. to man battle stations.

William was declared Missing on 22nd March 1918, the day after the commencement of the Spring Offensive. His death was later presumed, for official purposes, as having occurred on or since that date.

At the time of his death on 22nd March, the 17th Battalion had been ordered to the defence of the area around Atilly, to try to counter the rapid German advance. At 6.30 am ’D’ Company was sent to help the 2/5th Battalion The Gloucestershire Regiment to counter attack the Germans in the area of Holnon Wood, which it did successfully. Four hours later, the Battalion was ordered to move to a position know as Aviation Wood, to join the Headquarters of the 21st Brigade, but because of heavy shellfire, this move took four hours, and by the time the 17th Battalion had got there, the HQ and staff of the Brigade had gone. Then, as the Germans were making a strong attack at nearby Flesquires, the Battalion deployed around the wood. Eventually at 18.30 orders were received that all 30th Division troops had to withdraw to Ham, and the Battalion accordingly pulled back, reaching the town at around 21.30.

He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial in France.

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.

Listed as missing in the Wigan Observer and Liverpool Daily Post 14th May 1918

MISSING

KING'S LIVERPOOL REGT.

Rothwell, 90920, W. (Wigan).

His father William received his Army effects, including a War Gratuity of £6. The pension card in the name of his father shows a pension was initially refused but later awarded, amount not specified. After his father’s death, in about 1933, the pension went to his mother Margaret. She died in 1936, aged 68.

We currently have no further information on William Rothwell, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.

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