Pte 16998 Cecil Harry Showell

• Age: 24
• From: Wavertree, Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Saturday 1st July 1916
• Commemorated at: Danzig Alley Cem, Mametz
  Panel Ref: IV.S.5

16998 Private Cecil Harry SHOWELL, 18^th Battalion KLR.

Cecil Harry Showell was born in Wavertree, Liverpool on Christmas Day, 25th December 1891, the youngest of seven children born to Alfred James Showell and his wife Selina (née Lavender). They married in 1877. His father was born in Shalford, Essex and his mother in Stourbridge, Worcestershire. Cecil had older sisters Minnie Selina and Emily, and older brothers Arthur James, Alfred Walter, Charles Frederick, and William Maynard, all born in Toxteth Park. 

At the time of the 1901 census the family is living at “Brighton View”, The Avenue, Woolton Road, (St. Michael’s), Garston with seven children. His father is a 48 year old bookkeeper in a cotton warehouse, whilst his mother is 51 years of age. Cecil is 9 and has six siblings in the household. They are listed as; Minnie aged 21, Arthur J. a 19 year old clerk, Alfred W. a 17 year old butcher's assistant, Emily a 16 year old apprentice confectioner, Charles F. is 15 and William M. is 14.   

By 1911 they have moved to “Clevedon” 139 Whitehedge Road, Cressington, where his parents will remain, and now have five children still at home.  Cecil, 19, like his father, 58, is a commercial clerk for a cotton and general merchant, his mother is 61.  Minnie Selina, 31, has no occupation, Arthur James, 29, and Charles Frederick, 25, are commercial clerks for a ship owner.  William Maynard, 24, is a marine engineer. His parents advised that they had been married for 33 years and all seven of their children had survived.

Cecil enlisted at St George's Hall in Liverpool on 01^st September 1914, joining the 18th Battalion as Private 16988. He gave his age as 22 years 250 days, his occupation as cotton clerk with Messrs. Ralli Brothers and his next of kin as his father. He is described as being 5' 9" tall, weight 141lbs, chest 37”, with a fresh complexion, grey eyes and brown hair. He gave his religion as Baptist. 

From the 23^rd September 1914 he was billeted at Hooton Park Race Course and remained there until 03^rd December 1914 when they moved into the hutted accommodation at Lord Derby’s estate at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 18th Battalion alongside the other three Pals battalions left Liverpool via Prescot Station for further training at Belton Park, Grantham. They remained here until September 1915 when they reached Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain.  

He crossed to France with his Battalion on the 07^th November 1915, and was killed in action at Montauban on 01^st July 1916, aged 24.

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. 

Cecil Harry was buried close to where he fell and after the war when graves were concentrated, his body was removed and reinterred. He now rests at Dantzig Alley British Military Cemetery, where his headstone bears the epitaph: 

“I.H.S.  IN LOVING MEMORY, FATHER, MOTHER, BROTHERS, SISTERS. LIVERPOOL” 

The village of Mametz was carried by the 7th Division on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, after very hard fighting at Dantzig Alley (a German trench) and other points. The cemetery was begun later in the same month and was used by field ambulances and fighting units until the following November. The ground was lost during the great German advance in March 1918 but regained in August, and a few graves were added to the cemetery in August and September 1918. At the Armistice, the cemetery consisted of 183 graves, now in Plot I, but it was then very greatly increased by graves (almost all of 1916) brought in from the battlefields north and east of Mametz and from certain smaller burial grounds.

Dantzig Alley British Cemetery now contains 2,053 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 518 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 17 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of 71 casualties buried in other cemeteries, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

His death was reported in the Liverpool Echo on 14th July, and more details given on the 26th, under the heading;

“Didn’t Have to be Pushed” 

“Private Cecil Harry Showell, of the “Pals”, youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Showell of Clevedon, Whitehedge Road, Garston, was killed in action.  He was twenty-four years of age and before joining the “Pals” was on the staff of Messrs. Ralli Bros., Liverpool.  In a letter to his parents it is stated he died a hero’s death for his country and didn’t have to be pushed into the Army to do it.”

He is commemorated locally on the following Memorials:

Toxteth Tabernacle Baptist Church, Park Road, Toxteth

Liverpool Cotton Association, Walker House, Exchange Flags Liverpool.

He was remembered in the Runcorn Weekly News on the 30th July 1926: 

PRIVATE C .H. SHOWELL, who fell in action while serving with the Liverpool Pals in the advance of July 1916. Before joining at Lord Derby's call in 1914, he was on the staff of Ralli Brothers, Liverpool.  

His Army effects and a War Gratuity of £8-10s went to his father. 

His father died in 1928 aged 74, leaving over £7,000 to his widow Selina. 

His mother Selina suffered more grief in 1932 when Cecil's brother William, 45, a marine engineer, hanged himself in the engine room of his ship, distraught after the death of his wife.

His mother died on 2nd December 1938 at the age of 88.

Probate 1939:- 

SHOWELL Selena of 139 Whitehedge Road, Grassendale Liverpool widow died 2 December 1938 Probate Liverpool 2 March to Arthur James Showell shipping clerk and Thomas Robert Jones solicitor. Effects £9174 10s. 

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