Pte 36733 Robert Swift

Robert Swift was born in Preston, Lancashire, in 1883, the youngest son of William Swift and his wife Sarah (née Greenough), who married on the 24th December 1864 at St John's Church, Preston.  His father was born in Whittle Le Wood, Lancashire (south of Preston) and his mother in Preston.  They had eight children, three of whom died in infancy; Robert was the fourth of five surviving children. He had older siblings George and Margaret Alice, and Elizabeth (who died aged 5 two years after Robert was born), and a younger sister Hannah.  Robert was baptised on 31st May in St. Thomas, Preston, his parents living at 8 Kent Street, and his father’s occupation given as sizer.

 

In 1891 the family is living at 48 Kent Street. His father, 45, is a shopkeeper, his mother is also 45, George, 19, and Margaret, 13, are cotton weavers, Robert is 7, Hannah is 4. 

His father died in 1894, aged 49, when Robert had just turned 11.

 

In 1901 his widowed mother Sarah, 57, is head of household at 8 Upper Kent Street, Preston. His sisters Margaret, 23, and Hannah,14, are cotton weavers, and Robert, 18, is a reacher in a cotton mill.

 

His mother died the next year, aged 58.

 

In 1911 Robert is living at 38 Shuttleworth Street with his married sister Margaret, her husband, James Saunders, and two children, Robert is 28, single, working as a loomer in a cotton mill. His younger sister Hannah had married in January 1911.

 

SDGW shows that Robert enlisted in Preston, but the date is unknown as his service record has not survived, He served as Private 36733, 20th (Pals) Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment.  He would have trained in the U.K.  before shipping to the front. 

 

In the summer of 1916 the 20th battalion was in the front lines on the Somme, and went over the top in those deadly days of July, and took part in the costly attack on Guillemont.  In October, as part of the 89th Brigade, the battalion takes up position for the coming assault on the Transloy Ridges.From the War Diary:

Near Eaucourt L’Abbaye.  12/10/1916. The 4^th British and 6^th French armies continued the attack. Zero 2.5 p.m.  The whole XVth Corps attacked […]  The attack of 89^th Inf Bde was carried out with 2^nd Bn Bedf Regt on right, 17^th Bn KLR on left, 20^th Bn KLR in support, 19^th Bn KLR in reserve.  Battalions attacked in four waves. On the departure of the attacking battalions Nos. 1 and 2 companies advanced, each in two waves, to garrison the front line trench vacated by 2^nd Bn Bedf Regt on right and 17^th KLR on left. On Nos 1 and 2 Coys vacating front assembly trench, it was occupied by two platoons of Nos. 3 and 4 Coys respectively, from rear assembly trench. As the assaulting waves left their trenches they were met by intense machine gun fire, especially on our left. The enemy also opened heavy barrages on our front support and assembly trenches. […] Capt. H. Beckett, commanding No.1 company, reached the front line with few casualties, but Lieut R.D. Paterson leading No.2 company was killed. His company also had few casualties. The assaulting battalions were held up by very heavy machine gun fire, and made little progress.  […] At 4.20 p.m. two platoons, No.4 Coy, under Cpl Brighouse, were sent up to reinforce the left, and No.3 Coy under Cpl Sutton followed at 4.45 p.m.  Battalion HQ moved up to front line at 4.55 and remaining two platoons of No.4 Coy moved up to join Cpl Brighouse. 

Casualties during action: 

Officers – Killed Lieut. R.D. Paterson, 2^nd Lieut G.L. Grennan, Wounded – 2^nd Lieuts A.E. Griffin, L.E. Mclean Hayes, C. Buttemer, Wounded Cpl g. Brighouse.

Other Ranks killed – 20. 

It had rained incessantly at the beginning of October 1916 and the ground was full of mud. In his book ‘The Liverpool Pals’ Graham Maddocks describes the day Herbert was killed.

It was obvious that the Germans knew an attack was coming and from which direction it would be mounted. On the evening of the 11th the 20th Battalion moved up the line and dug two deep assembly trenches behind the 17th Battalion’s position for the attack the next day. The 19th Battalion also moved into its reserve positions known as Flers Trench. Although the rain has stopped, the ground was like a morass, with all the natural vegetation destroyed, it was difficult to tell exactly where the objectives lay. On the afternoon of the 12th at exactly 2.05pm, the attack began along the whole Corps line, covered by the local batteries of the Royal Field Artillery which still had line of sight. As the whistles blew, the 17th Battalion left its trenches to move forwards, at the same time No.1 and 2 Companies of the 20th Battalion moved forward and occupied the trenches vacated by the 17th. As they too went over the top, No.3 and 4 Companies took their place and waited in their turn to follow. No.2 and 3 Companies of the 19th Battalion moved up to occupy the assembly trenches dug the previous night by the 20th.

As soon as the attacking waves left their trenches the enemy artillery began to register on them and at the same time the defending infantry commenced a murderous rain of fire. Those German regiments were trained and experienced soldiers, well dug in on high ground, and for the most part, looking out on uncut wire. As such it was virtually impossible for them to miss the City Battalion men struggling to advance in the mud towards them.

Brigadier-General F.C.Stanley wrote that the Battalions were also suffering casualties due to the short shooting of the British heavy artillery fire. “I know from practical experience that they were our own guns which were shooting, and which were causing us quite a considerable number of casualties. The fault lay at that time from the fact that the heavy gunners would not send their FOO’s (Forward Observation Officers) far enough forward, but were content to observe us from right back”

Some ground was gained that day, about 150 yards, the 20th Battalion were not relieved until 24 hours later causing the men to endure another day and night in the front line trench.

Robert was one of the "Other Ranks" referred to, he was aged 33 years.

His body was never recovered from the battlefield, or was subsequently lost.  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.” 

Robert’s death was announced in the Lancashire Evening News on 8th November 1916:  

“Private Robert Swift, 8th [sic] King’s Liverpool Reg., has been killed in action in France.  He was a single man, and resided in Shuttleworth Road, Preston. Before the war he was a loomer in the employ of Mr. J. Atherton, at Brookfield Mill, Preston.”

 

His siblings placed an In Memoriam notice in the same newspaper on the anniversary of his death in 1918:

 “In loving memory of our dear brother, Pte. Robert Swift, killed in action October 12th, 1916.

• From his Sisters and Brothers-in-Law, Jim and Bill in Salonika. - Shuttleworth Road, Preston.”

 

His brother-in-law Bill (Hannah’s husband who served in the Cheshire Regiment) survived the war. Sadly, their son, also named Robert, was killed in France with the South Staffs Regt., on 02nd June 1940, aged 20.