L/Sgt 17334 George Fitzsimmons

• Age: 26
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• K.I.A Saturday 30th March 1918
• Commemorated at: Pozieres Memorial
  Panel Ref: P21-23

George Fitzsimmons was born on 17th December 1891 in Liverpool and was the youngest son of James Fitzsimmons and his wife Annie Florence (nee Kneen).His father was from Manchester and his mother from Liverpool. They married in 1876 and had 13 children.  George had older siblings Blanche, Evelyn, Albert, Harold, James, Frederick, Henry, and Frank, and younger sisters Annie, Grace, Nora, and Elsie. George was baptised in St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church on 27th February 1892.

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. He arrived in France on 7^th November 1915.

His service record survives and shows:

Whilst training at Grantham, on 05th May 1915, he was confined to barracks for three days for hesitating to obey an order.

02/9/1916 granted Good Conduct Badge for two years’ service and granted Class II professional pay.

20/9/1916 appointed paid L/Cpl
17/10/1916 to Field Ambulance, sick
22/10/1916 admitted No.38 Casualty Clearing station, sprained ankle
23/10/1916 admitted 23rd General Hospital, Camiers
04/11/1916 transported to 6th Con(valescent) Depot
10/11/1916 discharged, joined 24 Infantry Base Depot
18/11/1916 rejoined unit in the field

24/12/1916 granted leave to U.K.
08/01/1917 rejoined from leave
14/01/1917 to 30th Div. Infantry School
21/01/1917 rejoined unit
18/3/1917 to 30th Div. Gas School
23/3/1917 rejoined unit
03/4/1917 appointed paid Acting Cpl

24/8/1917 to 30th Div. Gas School
30/8/1917 rejoined unit
18/10/1917 granted leave to U.K.
30/10/1917 rejoined from leave
10/01/1918 appointed paid L/Sgt

His father died in the September quarter of 1917, aged 67.

George was serving in the 19^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Lance-Sergeant No 17334 when he was killed in action on the 30^th March 1918 aged 26 during the German Spring Offensive. 

As Graham Maddocks points out in his book The Liverpool Pals, the CWGC records 38 men of the 19^th Bn of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as killed in action on 30^th March 1918 when as the Battalion diary below, shown in bold type, records that the men were actually out of the line and safely on the way to St Valery- sur- Somme.

The composite battalion moved off from ROUVREL at 8.30 am at 50 yards interval between companies, arriving at SALEUX at 3.20 pm where they entrained, detraining at ST. VALERY-SUR-SOMME the same night. The night was spent at ST. VALERY-SUR-SOMME.

Apart from those whose bodies were not found and are commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial all but two have burial sites at Savy British Cemetery, which itself is within a couple of miles of Roupy and contains most of the identified men killed on 22^nd March 1918. Therefore, it would appear that the date of death for these men shown as 30^th March 1918 is purely an arbitrary one and that they were in fact killed on 22^nd March.

George has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial.

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.

George was initially declared Missing between 22nd-30th March 1918.

He was reported missing in the Weekly Casualty List on 04th June 1918

- Fitzsimmons 17334 L.-Sgt G. (Everton); 

His eldest sister Blanche, now Mrs. Harkness, living at 26 Colwyn Road, Old Swan, contacted the International Red Cross, but received a reply on 8th October 1918 that they held no information on George. 

The anxiety of the family can be felt in the message placed in the Liverpool Echo dated 04th December 1918 some 3 weeks after the war had ended:

MISSING - INFORMATION WANTED

FITZSIMMONS - Missing since March 23 1918, Sergt. G. FITZSIMMONS, 17334, B Company, 19th King's (Liverpool Regt) Pals. - Any information from returning prisoners will be gratefully received by Miss Bolton, 5, Hawkesworth Street, Anfield.   

One year after George was reported Missing, his mother Annie, living at 2 Sandheys Terrace, Waterloo, wrote to the Army records office on 18th March 1919:

“Dear Sir, The above soldier was reported missing in France near St. Quentin on 22nd March 1918.  I shall be glad to hear if there is any further information in your possession respecting him and if not, when may I expect to receive the official Notice presuming Death? Yours faithfully”

It is not known when his family received official notice of George’s death but his mother died just weeks later, in May 1919, aged 60.

George earned his three medals, which his father signed for. His Army effects and a War Gratuity of £21-10s went to his father James. A pension of 11/6d a week was awarded to his parents from December 1918.

His brother Henry served in the Royal Navy 1904-1919, and had a son in 1921 he called George.

His father, still living in Sandheys Terrace, died at age 85 in 1936.

George is commemorated on the following memorials -

Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance, Panel 2

Mersey Docks and Harbour Board Memorial.

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