Rifleman 52831 William Tyrer

William Tyrer was born in 1889 in Liverpool and was baptised 15th August, 1889 at St James the Less Church, Liverpool. He was the son of James and Ellen Tyrer(nee McBride).

 

The 1891 Census shows the family living at 164 Commercial Road, Kirkdale, Liverpool.

The father James aged 33 born 1858 and he is employed as a labourer and was born in Liverpool. His wife Ellen aged 28 with no occupation listed was also born in Liverpool. At the taking of the Census they have three children Thomas aged 6, born 1895 is a scholar, James aged 4 born 1887 and William aged 1, born 1890. The children were all born in Liverpool. They also have Ellen’s sister Mary Ellen aged 21, with no occupation listed, her father Patrick McBride. A widower aged 64, born 1827 in Dublin and a boarder Martin Connolly, aged 21 born 1870 in Liverpool and employed as a labourer.

 

The 1901 Census shows the family living at 71 Leyden Street, Kirkdale, Liverpool.

The father James a widower now aged 46 is employed as a boatman on the canal. His wife Ellen died in 1901. At the taking of the Census, he is living with his five sons, Thomas aged 15 is a general carter, James aged 13, William aged 11,Peter aged 8, born 1893 and Arthur aged 3 born 1898.

 

William was aged 21 when he married Ellen Sinnott, aged 22 on 13th August 1910. 

 

The 1911 Census shows William and his wife living at 4 Leyden Street, Kirkdale, Liverpool.

William is aged 21 and employed as a packing case maker in a sugar refinery and his wife Ellen is aged 22 , born 1889 and has no occupation listed. They also have William’s brother Peter aged 18 and employed as a printer also working in a sugar refinery living at the address with them.

 

Their daughter Ellen was born 21st June 1911, followed by another daughter, Mary, in 1913, who died at age 1 in the spring of 1915. A son William was born about that time in 1915 but he too sadly died, at a few months old.

 

William enlisted in Liverpool as Private 52831, joining the 17th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment.  Based on the amount of the War Gratuity he served for 26 months, enlisting in early 1916.

 

A son James was born on 22nd September 1916.

 

William’s name appeared in the list of K.L.R. Wounded published in the Liverpool Daily Post on 14th September 1917.  The 17th Bn at that time was in the Ypres Salient, and this was during the Third Battle of Ypres, also called Passchendaele. William was transferred to the 1/6th Bn K.L.R on 16th September 1917 most likely after recuperating from his wounds.

He was serving as Rifleman 52831 when he was killed in action on 09th April 1918.

William's body was not recovered from the battlefield or was subsequently lost as his name is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, France.

The Loos Memorial commemorates over 20,000 officers and men who have no known grave, who fell in the area from the River Lys to the old southern boundary of the First Army, east and west of Grenay, from the first day of the Battle of Loos to the end of the war. On either side of the cemetery is a wall 15 feet high, to which are fixed tablets on which are carved the names of those commemorated. At the back are four small circular courts, open to the sky, in which the lines of tablets are continued, and between these courts are three semicircular walls or apses, two of which carry tablets, while on the centre apse is erected the Cross of Sacrifice.

The memorial was designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Charles Wheeler. It was unveiled by Sir Nevil Macready on 4 August 1930.

His children were 6 years and 18 months old when William died.

 

His widow Ellen, living at 181 Athol Street, Liverpool, received a pension of 11/8d a week for the two children, and a War Gratuity of £12.  Ellen remarried on 3/8/1918.

 

William is commemorated on Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance, Panel 37.

 

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