Pte 25703 Wallace Arnold Stanway

• Age: 26
• From: Ellesmere Port, Cheshire
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Saturday 1st July 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.

25703 Private Wallace Arnold STANWAY, 18th Battalion KLR.

Wallace Arnold “Wally” Stanway was born on 13th April 1890, the seventh child of Edwin Griffiths Stanway and his wife Emma (nee Jones) who were married in Shifnal, Shropshire in 1873, their Banns were read on the 06^th April 1873 at St John's Church, Birkenhead. Edwin had been born in Madeley, Shropshire in 1849 and Emma in Wellington, Shropshire in 1852. The year they were married they moved to the Wirral and had their first child.

Wallace was baptised on the 04^th May 1890 in Ellesmere Port. 

By the 1891 census when Wallace was 1 year old the family lived at Mersey Street in Ellesmere Port. His father, Edwin, was a 41 year old builder and joiner, his mother Emma was aged 38. There were six other children besides Wallace – Jessie L. aged 17 who was a music teacher, Lillian F. 13 a shop assistant, Ernest 10 E. a scholar, Harold G. 8 a scholar, Horace V. 5 a scholar, and 3 year old Norman V. 

His brother Ernest died in 1899.

The 1901 census shows Edwin, aged 53 and Emma aged 48 are living at 31 Church Street, Ellesmere Port. There are three of their children at home: Harold who is a 19 year old pupil teacher, Wallace is 10 and Reginald is 7.

His father Edwin died aged 57 on the 07^th May 1906 and was buried at Christ Church Cemetery, Ellesmere Port.  

The 1911 census shows the widowed Emma, aged 59, living at Silverdale, Westminster Road, Ellesmere Port. She advised that she had been married for 39 years and seven of their eight children had survived (crossed out on census). Four sons are at home: Horace Victor aged 24 and Norman aged 22 are cycle makers, Reginald is 17 and an apprentice wheelwright and Wally is aged 20 and described as a milk reseller. His brothers were the owners of Stanway Cycles.

Prior to enlisting Wally, was working as a dairyman and was living at 4 Westminster Road, Ellesmere Port.

Wallace enlisted in Liverpool on or about the 18th January 1915, joining the 18th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 25703. 

He was billeted at 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 arrived in France on 07^th November 1915.

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

The events of the 1st July for the 18th Battalion were:

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 18th 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.

Wallace's body was not recovered or was subsequently lost as he 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 Wallasey News on 15th July 1916:

Private Wallace Arnold Stanway of the Pals was killed in France with a shot through the head. 

It also featured in the Birkenhead News on 15^th July 1916: 

Wallace is also remembered on the family grave at Christ church, Ellesmere Port which reads:- 

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