Pte 21670 Thomas William Telford

• Age: 23
• From: Penrith, Cumb
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• K.I.A Monday 9th April 1917
• Commemorated at: Henin Crucifix Cem
  Panel Ref: A.44

Thomas William (Tom) was born in Penrith in the third quarter of 1893 the son of Tom Telford and his wife Mary (nee Pattinson) who were married in the December quarter of 1882.

The 1901 Census shows the family are living at Bank Cottage, 4 Foster Street, Penrith, Cumberland. Thomas William is 7 years of age and is living with his parents and four siblings. His father, Tom, is a hairdresser by trade and he was born in Hayton, Northumberland in 1862, whilst his mother Mary was born in Penrith in 1865. His siblings, all born in Penrith are listed as; Alice Maud b.1883, Ronald Earl b.1887, Henry Eustace b.1891 and John Pattinson b.1896. 

The family are at the same address in 1911. Thomas William now listed as Tom is 17 years of age and a grocer's assistant. Both parents are in the household, his father Thomas William is aged 50, is still shown as a hairdresser, his mother Mary is 48. They advised that they had been married for 28 years and had 5 children. His three brothers are declared as living at home; Ronald 21, Eustace 20 and John , are all hairdressers assistants.   

He enlisted in Liverpool on 24th September 1914 joining the 19th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 21670. The service number of 18271 is struck through on his attestation papers. He gave his age as 20 years and his occupation as a clerk. He is described as being 5'6 inches tall, weighing 112lbs with a 35 inch chest. He has a fresh complexion with grey eyes and brown hair.

Formed on 07^th September 1914 the 19^th Battalion trained locally at Sefton Park and remained living at home or in rented accommodation until November 1914. They then moved to the hutted accommodation at Lord Derby’s estate at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 19th 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. 

On 07th May 1915 whilst stationed at Belton Park, Grantham he received a punishment of 7 days company fatigue for having an untidy bed. On 24th August 1915, still at Belton Park he received a further punishment of 4 days confined to barracks for leaving the rifle range without permission. He was posted to France on 16th December 1915 and named his father as his next of kin.  

Tom was wounded at Guillemont on 30th July 1916 described as GSW, back. He was hospitalised at 12 General Hospital in Rouen and rejoined his unit on 14th September 1916. He was granted his Good Conduct badge for two years service on 30th September 1916. Shortly after this he was wounded again on 21st October 1916. This can only have been a slight wound to his hand as he rejoined his unit on 22nd October 1916.

He was killed in action on 09th April 1917, aged 23, during the opening phase of the Battle of Arras.

Details of the action of 09/04/1917:

17^th,  19^th & 20th  Battalion at the  Battle of Arras 09^th April 1917

Everard Wyrall records the events of the day  in Volume 2 of his History of the King's Regiment (Liverpool).

The 89^th Brigade formed up for the attack with the 19^th King's on the right and the 20^th King’s on the left. The 17^th King’s supplied the “mopping up" parties and he 2nd Bedfords were in close support.

It was just after 3pm when the advance began “According to scheduled time the waves advanced in good style and with determination; everyone was cheerful and in the best of spirits”

That advance is described by others as magnificent. From the OP’s the observing officers saw a wonderful sight – long lines of men advancing steadily up a long and gradual slope towards the enemy’ front line. Then suddenly they disappeared. The observers quite pardonably, imagined that the German front line had fallen into the hands of the assaulting troops and that the latter were on the way to the enemy’s support line. Alas something very different had happened. When the advancing troops had reached the summit of the long slope up which they advanced the ground suddenly dipped before the German front line , and when the observing officers thought they  were already in the Bosche lines they had not, as a matter of fact, even reached the wire. What the observers took to be the front line was really the support line; the front line could not be seen  - it lay just behind the crest of that slight rise in the ground.

The attacking waves of the 19^th King’s got within 100 yards of the German wire but were then held up. They were faced by three belts of entanglements, practically untouched by our artillery, and nothing could be done but to dig in or else take shelter in the many shell- shell-with which “No Man’s Land" was pitted. By this time the battalion’s losses were very heavy, and when darkness fell “A" and “B" Companies (about 140 in all) lay in shell-holes, two or three hundred yards north east of St. Martin, but just south of the Cojeul River, and “C" and “D" Companies (140 all ranks) were along the river bank, but on the northern side about 150 yards north east of St. Martin.

The first waves of the 20^th King’ advanced at 3.7pm. At 4pm Lieut Beaumont, commanding “A" Company, reported that he had had some forty casualties in passing through the enemy’s barrage. The next message, timed 4.40pm, stated that the position of the battalion at that period was on a crest in front of the enemy’s wire and about 100 yards from it. On the right the 21^st Division was observed to have penetrated the enemy’s front line, but in the left the right Battalion of the 21^st Brigade (the Wilts) was on the St. Martin- Neuville Vitasse road; the left flank of the 20^th King's was, therefore, “ in the air”.

Urgent messages were sent up from Battalion Headquarters to “push on, keeping in touch with right” But little else could be accomplished until those formidable belts of wire had been cut sufficiently to allow the rapid passage of the attacking troops, headed by their bombers.

At 9:30 that night 89^th Brigade Headquarters ordered both the 19^th and 20^th Battalions to withdraw, the former to the two sunken roads running south east from St. Martin, the latter to north west of St. Martin; the guns had been ordered to cut the enemy’s wire during the night in preparation for another attack during the 10^th April.

Of the 17^th King’s  - the “moppers up" – there is little to relate. There was nothing to “mop up" so that they did not function. Yet they had shared all the perils of the advance, and when  after they had fallen back and at midnight held the following positions, “B", “C", and “D" Companies in and around the sunken road north of Boiry-Becquerelle and “A" Company in trenches west of Henin, they lost 2 officers and 16 other ranks killed, and 3 officers and 48 other ranks wounded. 

Thomas William now rests at Henin Crucifix Cemetery in France where his headstone bears the epitaph:

"DUTY BRAVELY DONE. LOVED BY ALL".

Henin-sur-Cojeul was captured on 02nd April 1917, lost in March 1918 after an obstinate resistance by the 40th Division, and retaken on 24 August 1918 by the 52nd (Lowland) Division.

Henin Crucifix Cemetery is named from a calvary standing on the opposite side of the road. It was made by units of the 30th Division after the capture of the village in 1917.

Henin Crucifix Cemetery contains 61 burials and commemorations of the First World War. Two of the burials are unidentified and eight graves, destroyed in later fighting, are now represented by special memorials.

The cemetery was designed by G H Goldsmith.

This cemetery, five miles southeast of Arras, contains 61 WW1 burials and commemorations.  Of the 59 identified burials, over half, 33, are from the King’s Liverpool Regiment, all but one of whom are Liverpool Pals.

His mother signed for his personal belongings on 24th August 1917 which consisted of:

3 cloth numerals, 2 brass numerals, crucifix, wallet, letters, photos, cards, 2 cap badges, cigarette case, 1 medal,  pipe, MG Badge, two safety razors and a bag.