Pte 23931 John Dilworth

• Age: 21
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 20th Btn
• K.I.A Monday 3rd July 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.

23931 Private John DILWORTH, 20th Battn KLR - KIA 03.07.1916.

John Dilworth was born in 1895 to William Dilworth, a platelayer, and his wife Mary (nee Charnock). His parents married on 25th November 1894 at St Mary's Church, Edge Hill. John was baptised on 05th July 1895 in All Saints Church, Stoneycroft when the family address was “Grey Horse, Stoneycroft. Mary was born Mary Charnock but her mother, Susannah, lost her husband in 1885 and then married Joseph Swarbrick that same year.

In the September quarter of 1899, Mary’s husband, William, died aged 28.

The 1901 Census shows Mary as a 26 year old widow living with her mother and stepfather, Joseph Swarbrick, at 191 Prescot Road, with two of her three children, William (4 years) and James Joseph (1 year). There is no obvious entry for John Dilworth in the Census.

Joseph Swarbrick died later that year and on 4the August 1902, Mary Dilworth married John Hugh Butler at All Saints, giving her address as 4 Maddock Street, Liverpool.

In 1906, her mother, Susannah, died.

The 1911 Census shows Mary and John Butler living at 47 Geneva Road, Seacombe with Mary’s sons John, now 15 years old, and William, 14 years. Also living in the household is Mary Butler, born to Mary and John in 1903.

John Dilworth’s service record no longer exists but his Medal Card shows that he enlisted in Liverpool, joining the 20th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 23931.

Formed in November 1914 the 20^th Battalion were originally billeted at Tournament Hall, Knotty Ash before on 29^th January 1915 they moved to the hutted accommodation purposely built at Lord Derby’s estate at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 20th 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 left for France on 07th November 1915 and was awarded his three medals (BWM, VM, 1915 Star).

He was killed in action on the Somme on 03rd July 1916 and an entry in the Wallasey News on 15th July 1916 reports that:

“John, the eldest son of Mr & Mrs Butler, 43 (sic) Geneva Road, who was home on leave 4 months ago, was killed by a bursting shell in the trenches. Death was instantaneous”.

The Register of Soldiers’ Effects shows John as having been killed on 1st July, the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, while the Pension Ledgers show he died on 3rd - it’s possible that he was wounded on 1st and died later. His effects were sent to his step-father.

John’s body was not recovered from the battlefield or was subsequently lost as he is one of those named on the Thiepval Memorial.

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.”

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