Lieut Gerald Moore Dawson

• Age: 22
• From: Liverpool
• 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.

Lieutenant Gerald Moore DAWSON, 18^th Battalion KLR.

Gerald was born in Liverpool on 18th July 1893, the younger of two sons born to Dr. Thomas Moore Dawson (surgeon and physician) and his wife Jane (nee Cattrall) who were married on the 13th May 1886 at All Hallows Church, Allerton.

Gerald was baptised at Willaston Church on 03rd September 1893.

The 1901 Census finds the family living at 77 Upper Parliament Street, Liverpool. His father recorded on the census as Theodore. He was born in Liverpool in 1854 and is a Physician and Surgeon (he had a practice in Rodney Street, Liverpool), whilst his mother was born in Birkenhead in 1856. Gerald is 8 years of age and has one sibling shown as Theodore W. b.1892 in Liverpool. Also present are four servants.

By 1911 the family are still resident at 77 Upper Parliament Street. His father is shown as Thomas Moore and is now 57 years of age, his mother is now 56. They advised that they had been married for 25 years and had 2 children.  Gerald is 18 and shown to be still at school, whilst his brother Thomas Wegnall is now 20 and an apprentice sugar broker. 

Gerald was educated at Liverpool College, where he was a member of the Officers Training Corps, leaving in 1912, when he took up employment in the office of Messrs Bushby, Son & Beazley, cotton and colonial product brokers. He was then employed by Messrs Henry Tate & Sons, sugar refiners.

His father, Thomas, died aged 60 on the 19th May 1914 and was interred at Willaston Church.  

Gerald enlisted at St George's Hall in Liverpool on 31st August 1914 as Private 15073 although he had previously applied for a commission. On the 03^rd September, three days after enlisting Gerald was discharged to a commission in his Battalion. Gerald was involved in training recruits at Hooton Hall, the London Gazette shows that Gerald Moore Dawson was commissioned as a Temporary 2^nd Lieutenant in the King’s Liverpool Regiment with effect from 13^th November 1914.  

Cecil Rowley Bolton married Gladys May Jackson on the 22nd March 1916 at St James' Church, Edgbaston, Warwickshire. Cecil was a 27 year old Captain in the 22nd King’s Liverpool of “Eastleigh”, Storeton Road, Prenton, his father, Walter, was a cotton merchant, whilst Gladys was aged 24 of The Firs, St. James Road, Edgbaston, her father, George, was a fruit merchant.

The wedding was reported in the Birmingham Daily Gazette on Thursday 23rd March 1916 as an Edgbaston Wedding;

COUNCILLOR'S DAUGHTER AND ARMY CAPTAIN

The wedding took place at St James's Church, Edgbaston yesterday of Miss Gladys May Jackson and Captain Cecil Bolton, 22nd King's Liverpool Regiment, of Birkenhead. The bride is a daughter of Councillor George Jackson of The Firs, Elvetham road. Lieutenant G Dawson was the best man. 

He served in France from 18^th April 1916, and was killed in action on 01^st July 1916.

Although he was a commissioned Second Lieutenant in the King’s Regiment, with effect from September 03rd 1914, he does not appear in the Battalion War Diary until the day of his death on 01st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

The Battalion’s objectives that day, was the capture of the German front line and support trenches, and the German fortified position known as the Glatz Redoubt, to allow the 19th Battalion The Manchester Regiment, to follow through and capture the village of Montauban. The German front line trenches fell according to the plan, but as the Battalion tried to leave the German support line, its advance was held up by enfilading fire from a machine-gun firing from Alt Trench, on the left flank. This gun was further protected by snipers and bombers who held a position in Alt Trench, at right angles to Alt Alley and who were hidden by a rough tree hedge. Those bombers and snipers were themselves supported by rifle fire from Train Alley, which ran back to Montauban itself.

Eventually, Lieutenant HC Watkins led a party of bombers towards the position in Alt Trench and one of these, with great luck, hurled a grenade which exploded in the midst of the Germans, killing two and driving the rest back into Train Alley. This action allowed the advance to continue, as the Germans retreated or sought shelter in deep dugouts, where they were bombed, and the Battalion was ae to take its main objective The Glatz Redoubt.

At some stage during the course of the action, Lieutenant Dawson was killed with No.2 Company and as his body was not subsequently found and identified, his name appears on the Thiepval Memorial in France.

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 01^st 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.”

Following his death the local press covered his death with a series of articles:

His death was reported in the Liverpool Courier on the 13th July 1916:

"We regret to announce the death of Lieut. Gerald Moore Dawson, of the King's (Liverpool Regiment), who was killed in action in France, on Sunday, 2nd July,1916. Lieut. Dawson was educated at the Liverpool College, under Canon Lancelot, and left in 1912. He then went into the office of Messrs., Bushby, Son, and Beazley, cotton and colonial produce brokers, and after spending some time there, subsequently entered the employment of Messrs. Henry Tate and Sons, Ltd., sugar refiners. On the outbreak of war in 1914 he joined the army, and was stationed at Knowsley for some months. He had previously put in some valuable service in training recruits at Knowsley Hall. Lieut. Dawson soon obtained his commission, and proceeded to the front in April this year. He was a most efficient and conscientious officer, and very popular with his brother officers and men. At school he was a member of the O.T.C. Lieut. Dawson was a thorough sportsman, a good all-round athlete, and a prominent football player. Boxing was also a favourite pastime in which he took the keenest interest. His death at the early age of 22 has cut short a promising career, and his good nature, coupled with his modest and unselfish character, endeared him to his many friends". 

Probate records show: DAWSON Gerald Moore of West Oakfield, Hooton, Cheshire. Lieutenant 18th Battalion King's (Liverpool) Regiment died 02 July 1916 in France, killed in action. Administration (with Will) London 01st September 1916 to Thomas Wignall Dawson mercantile clerk. Effects £914 2s 7d.  

Soldiers Effects to brother Thomas Wignall Dawson, no Pension record found.