Pte 300365 Robert Silcock

• Age: 23
• From: Downall Green, Lancs
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• D.O.W Wednesday 12th December 1917
• Commemorated at: Outtersteene Cc Ext, Bailleul
  Panel Ref: II.C.15

In 1891 they lived in Billinge, where his father was employed as a slack crusher (mining). Elizabeth is 3, Jane and Robert are 1. Robert died later that year, aged 1.  They had Alice Ann in 1892 and another son that they named Robert in 1894.   

His father died at the age of 42 in Jun 1897 when Robert was two years old. 

His mother remarried to William Lowe in 1899 and they had a daughter Ellen in 1900. 

In 1901 they are living at 85 Old Road, Ashton in Makerfield. His stepfather, 35, is a coal miner/hewer, his mother is 33, Elizabeth 13, Jane 11, Alice 9, Robert is 6, and half sister Ellen is 5 months old.  They had a son, John, born in 1904. Other children were born who died in infancy. 

The 1911 census finds them in Rectory Cottages, North Ashton, near Wigan. His stepfather is 46, a timber man in a coal mine, his mother is 43, Elizabeth Jane Alice , Robert is 16, a wagoner in a coal mine, Ellen is 10, and John 6.  

Robert enlisted in the 1/1st Bn., Lancashire Hussars Yeomanry. as Private 250125 joining ‘B’ Squadron which was based in Ashton in Makerfield . His service record has not survived so the details are not known, but based on the amount of the War Gratuity, Robert served for 33 months, enlisting in about March 1915, when he was 20 years old.

B” Squadron went on 27th November 1915 to join the 31st Division at Salisbury Plain. In December it went to Egypt with the division and moved to France in March 1916.

Robert was evidently home on leave when he married Elizabeth Bowie on 10th March 1917 in St. Peter, Parr, St. Helens.  Robert is 22, Elizabeth is 19, they both give their address as 5 Johnson Street.  Robert gives his occupation as miner (not soldier), and lists his father, Matthew (deceased), occupation rope splicer. Elizabeth’s father, Hugh, also deceased, is a miner. There are no records of children born to the marriage. 

In July 1917, the Regiment was dismounted and sent for infantry training. This was completed in September 1917, when 290 men were transferred to the 18th Bn. King’s Liverpool Regiment, which was redesignated the 18th (Lancashire Hussars Yeomanry) Battalion, the King's (Liverpool) Regiment. Upon his transfer he became Private 300365.

Robert died of wounds on 12th December 1917, aged 23. 

He now rests at Outtersteene Communal Cemetery Extension, Bailleul in France.  

Outtersteene was captured by the III Corps on 13 October 1914 but no Commonwealth burials took place there for nearly three years. In August 1917, during the Third Battle of Ypres, the 2nd, 53rd and 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Stations came to Outtersteene, and the first and last of these remained until March 1918. The hamlet was captured by the Germans on 12 April 1918, and retaken by the 9th, 29th and 31st Divisions, with the ridge beyond it, on 18 and 19 August, but the cemetery was not used again during hostilities. After the Armistice, over 900 graves of 1914 and 1918 were brought into Plots I, II and IV from the battlefields surrounding Outtersteene and from certain small cemeteries. In the Extension, on the East side of the Communal Cemetery, were buried 17 soldiers from the United Kingdom and one from Australia, who fell in August and September 1918. 1,147 German graves were initially concentrated into Plot III. These were later removed to Steenwerck German Cemetery. The extension was used again in 1940, for the burial of those killed in the fighting which covered the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force to Dunkirk. Outtersteene Communal Cemetery Extension now contains 1,393 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. 499 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 14 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Second World War burials number 72, of which 23 are unidentified. The extension was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

His widow Elizabeth, living at 5 Johnson Street, Park Road, St. Helens, received his Army effects, a War Gratuity of £15-10s. The pension card, showing 7th K.L.R., shows that Elizabeth received a pension of 13/9d a week. 

Robert is commemorated on the War Memorial at Holy Trinity Church in Downall Green.

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