Capt Arthur de Bells Adam (MC)
1885 - 1916

CPL David Wallace Crawford
1887 - 1916

Lce-Corpl John Joseph Nickle
1894 - 1916

Pte 17911 Morton Neill
1897 - 1916

Lieut Edward Stanley Ashcroft
1883 - 1918

Pte 300249 Nelson Houghton Farquhar

Age: 21
From: Liverpool
Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
K.I.A Friday 22nd March 1918
Commemorated at: Pozieres Memorial
Panel Ref: P21-23

Nelson Houghton Farquhar was born in Liverpool on 25th July 1896, the youngest son of Edwin Farquhar and his wife Teresa Josephine (née Houghton). His parents, both born in Liverpool, married in 1886 and had four children. Nelson had an older sister Elsie, and older brothers Stanley and Gordon. The family was Roman Catholic; Nelson was baptised on 16th August in Sacred Heart, under the baptismal name Josephus Nelson.

At the time of Nelson’s birth the family lived at 5 Needham Road, where they had lived from at least 1891 until they moved in about 1898.

In 1901 the family is living at 12 Hannan Road, with four children. His father is a tailor’s cutter, his parents are both 38, Nelson is 4. Also in the household is his aunt Edith Farquhar, 36, a draper’s assistant.

His father died just weeks after the census, in June 1901, at the age of 38. His mother married Charles Clegg in late 1903 or early 1904.

The 1911 finds them at 2a Mirfield Street, Boaler Street. His mother, 48, married, is head of household, Elsie, 23, is an invoice clerk for a glass merchant, Gordon is 20, a mechanical engineer in a motor works, and Nelson is 14, a part-time student. They also have a boarder, Thomas Brearley, 26, a professor of music.

Nelson enlisted in Liverpool joining the 1/1st Lancashire Hussars Yeomanry 250806 until in September 1917 as part of a draft of 290 officers and men he was transferred to the 18^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 300249. The amount of the War Gratuity suggests he served nearly two and a half years before he was killed, enlisting in about October 1915.

In January 1918 the Pals battalions, after a seven month tour of duty in the Ypres Salient, move south and take up position near St. Quentin. The German Spring Offensive (Operation Michael), the German push to end the war, begins on 21st March. The Pals battalions, in Corps Reserve, receive orders at 5 a.m. to man battle stations. The 18th digs in southwest of Vaux.

The battalion diary entries for 22nd March 1918 are summarised below:

On the morning of 22nd March 1918 the Battalion was called upon by the GOC of the 90th Brigade, to carry ammunition to Stevens Redoubt. Fifty men under the command of J A Fisher were dispatched for this task and when they arrived, they were retained by the Officer Commanding the 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, who held the Redoubt, to help its defence.

Shortly after this, at about 10.00am, the GOC of the 90th Infantry Brigade reported that the Germans had broken through on the left of the northern forward defences, and called for two Companies of the 18th Battalion to make a counter attack under the command of the O/C of the Bedford. Captain Villar left immediately for Stevens Redoubt to confer with this officer, leaving the Adjutant Captain F Lawless in temporary command.

At about 10.30am No’s 2 and 3 Companies moved forward to the Redoubt, but found the situation there so serious, that they abandoned the idea of a counter attack and remained there helping the defence of the Garrison. By late afternoon the situation had become critical and the Battalion was ordered to withdraw to Ham. The flanks of the Garrison at Stevens Redoubt had given way by this time and the Commander there also decided to pull back.

The Battalion arrived at Ham at about 19.30pm and prepared defensive positions.

Nelson was declared Missing 21st-28th March. His mother, Mrs. T.J. Clegg, at 3 Homerton Road, Fairfield Road, made enquiries with the International Red Cross in hopes that Nelson had been taken prisoner. A negative reply was sent on 14th May 1918. His death was later assumed, for official purposes, to have occurred on or since 22nd March 1918. He was 21 years of age.

He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial in France.

The POZIERES MEMORIAL relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 4 August 1930.

His mother married Robert Smith in 1919. Mrs. Teresa J. Smith received Nelson’s Army effects of £30-3s-2d and a War Gratuity of £13-10s. The pension card in the name of his mother at 3 Homerton Road, later 3 Garrick Street, Edge Hill, appears to show pension refused.

His brother Gordon enlisted in 1915 and served in Mesopotamia with the R.A.S.C., was invalided to India, returned to the front, where he received the news of his brother’s death, and was demobbed in March 1919.

His brother Stanley served in the Machine Gun Corps, suffered a gunshot wound to the face, and received a partial disability pension.

His mother died in 1929 aged 66 and was buried with her first husband Edwin in West Derby Cemetery.

Nelson is commemorated in the Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall, Panel 2.

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

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