Pte 22085 Stanley Victor Garton

• Age: 25
• From: Widnes, Lancs
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 20th Btn
• D.O.W Monday 3rd July 1916
• Commemorated at: Daours Cc Ext
  Panel Ref: II.A.30

22085 Private Stanley Victor Garton, 20^th Battalion KLR.

Stanley Victor Garton was born in Ditton, Widnes on the 06th October 1890, the third son of Joseph Garton an estate agent’s assistant, and his wife Sarah Ann (nee Warburton). Joseph and Sarah married on the 26th October 1881 in St James' Church, Toxteth Park, when Joseph gave his address as 27 Roseberry Street, Toxteth and Sarah Ann gave hers as Wilmer Farm, Bold, Widnes. Stanley was their 6th child and their 3rd son, and was born when they lived in William Street, Widnes.

The 1891 Census shows the family are still at William Street, Widnes. Stanley is not yet one year old and lives with his parents and four older siblings. His father is 38 years old and a chemical sampler born in Farnworth, Widnes, his mother is 30 years of age and was also born in Farnworth. His siblings are listed as; Richard a scholar aged 9, Margaret A. also a scholar aged 7, William N. 5 also at school and Ida  aged 2.

In 1901 the family live at 6 George’s Road, Walton, Liverpool. Stanley is aged 10 and lives with both parents and eight siblings. His father is now 48 years of age and listed as an estate agent, whilst his mother is 40. His siblings are listed as; Richard aged 19 an accountant's clerk, Margaret A. 17, William N. 15 a junior shipping clerk, Ida 12, Sybil 5, Bertram 4, Mildred 2 and Amy E. 8 months.

Stanley’s father died on 01st April 1910.

The 1911 Census finds Sarah Ann, widowed, living at 37 The Willows (off Breck Road) with her eight children. Stanley, now aged 20 is described as an assistant foreman in a saccharine factory. His siblings still at home are; William Norman 25, Ida 22, Sybil 15, Bertram 14, Mildred 12, Amy Evelyn 10 and Cyril Joseph Southern aged 8. 

Stanley enlisted in Liverpool on 05th November 1914, joining the 20th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 22085. He was aged 24 years and  30 days, his occupation as a clerk with Liverpool Saccharine Company and his home address as 37 The Willows. He was described as being 5' 7" tall and weighing 119lbs.

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 sailed to France with the Pals on 07th November 1915.

In May 1916 he was hospitalised for 7 days suffering from shellshock. This was reported in the Liverpool Daily Post on 02nd June 1916:

Wounded. Shell Shock

King's (Liverpool's) - Parton(sic) 22085, S. (Liverpool)

On the 01st July 1916 during the attack at Montauban he sustained shrapnel wounds to his head and thigh. He was admitted to 96th Field Ambulance on 01st July, transferred to 45 Casualty Clearing Station the next day and died of his wounds on the 03rd July aged 25.

The 20^th Battalion describes the action on the day that Stanley was wounded:

Maricourt

Zero Hour 7.30am. After 65 minutes intensive bombardment the Battalion advanced to the attack of the German trenches. The Battalion advanced in four lines each of the two leading Companies on a frontage of 2 platoons – No’s 1 & 2 Companies (in that order from the right) leading. No.3 Company in the 3^rd wave. No.4 Company in the 4^th wave. There being a distance of about 100 yards between each line. The lines advanced through the enemy’s artillery fire as though on parade in quick time. The leading waves went on without a pause to Alt Trench and Casement Trench which were secured at (time not stated) am. The casualties up to this being small. Our barrage lifting Dublin Trench (the 1^st Objective) was captured and consolidation immediately proceeded with. Captain Whiting with the 3^rd wave entrenching about 150 yards in the rear. Captain Robinson was wounded and No.2 Company was commanded during the day by Lt C P Moore. Casualties up to now were killed 2 officers – 1 wounded and 49 other ranks casualties killed and wounded. At 11.50 am orders were received for the assault of the Briqueterie. The Battalion operation orders for this were issued from NW of Germans Wood. Our barrage lifted at 12,30 pm and No. 4 Company under Captain E C Orford assisted by a section of bombers under 2^nd Lt Baker who went up Nord Alley and Chimney Trench to secure his left flank, who had got right forward under cover of the fire of our guns rushed it almost without opposition. On the far side a party of the enemy were found in deep dug-outs. They brough a machine gun into action and some close fighting ensued in which Lt Gooch and Lt Williams were wounded. Opposition was however speedily overcome and the garrison consisting of the H.Q. of a Regt, one Colonel and 4 other officers – 40 rank and file , 2 machine guns together with maps, orders, documents and material fell into our hands. Steps were immediately taken for consolidating the ground won, which however owing to the destruction wrought by our “heavies” was a matter of great difficulty, what had been trenches being almost unrecognisable as such and the earth so pulverised that cover could only be made by aid of sandbags. The garrison was heavily shelled through the afternoon and most of the night and casualties were many. Battalion H.Q. were at the junction of Glatz Alley and Casement Trench north west of Germans Wood and this together with Dublin Trench received considerable attention from enemy guns. Casualties during the day 2 officers killed (2^nd Lts F Barnes and JC Laughlin) and 3 wounded (Captain H H Robinson, Lt S Gooch and 2^nd Lt F J Williams). 75 other ranks killed and wounded.                       

Stanley now rests at Daours Communal Cemetery Extension, Plot II Row A Grave 30 where his headstone bears the epitaph:

"HIS DUTY NOBLY DONE".

The preparations for the Somme offensive of July 1916 brought a group of casualty clearing stations (the 1st/1st South Midland, 21st, 34th, 45th and Lucknow, section "B") to Daours. The extension to the communal cemetery was opened and the first burials made in Plots I, II, Row A of Plot III and the Indian plot, between June and November 1916. The Allied advance in the spring of 1917 took the hospitals with it, and no further burials were made in the cemetery until April 1918, when the Germans recovered the ground they had lost. From April to the middle of August 1918, the extension was almost a front line cemetery. In August and September 1918, the casualty clearing stations came forward again (the 5th, 37th, 41st, 53rd, 55th and 61st) but in September, the cemetery was closed. There are now 1,231 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in Daours Communal Cemetery Extension. The total includes special memorials to four men of the Chinese labour corps whose graves in White Chateau Cemetery, Cachy, could not be located. The adjoining communal cemetery contains two First World War burials made before the extension was opened. The extension was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

His death was reported in the Liverpool Echo dated 11th July 1916 -

KILLED IN ACTION

GARTON—July 3, aged 25 years, Private Stanley Victor Garton, (Liverpool Pals), third son of Mrs. S. A.  and the late Joseph Garton, 37 The Willows, Liverpool.

His effects and later his three medals were sent to his mother who then lived at “Stoneleigh”, 26 Mannering Road, Sefton Park. Probate records show that he left estate valued at more than £1800, a significant amount for those days, to his mother.

In a sworn declaration in September 1919, Sarah Ann declared Stanley’s immediate family as herself; his brothers Richard (37 years); Cyril Joseph (17 years and living in Huddersfield); William (33 years); and his sisters, Margaret A. McKenzie 12 Armley Road, Anfield, and Ida, Sybil, Mildred and Amy Evelyn Garton all resident at 37 "The Willows", Breck Road, Anfield.

William Norman Garton enlisted in the 6th Battalion KLR on the 02nd November 1914 but was discharged on medical grounds on 10th April 1915;

Cyril Joseph qualified as a doctor and surgeon, working for a time in the David Lewis Northern Hospital in Liverpool and lived to the ripe old age of 96 years;

Bertram was educated at St Margarets and then Liverpool Collegiate, leaving school in summer 1914 and taking up an apprenticeship with the London & Lancashire Fire Insurance Company. His name appears in their WW1 Memorial Board as serving with RAMC but he survived the war and may be identical with Bertram Garton who served with RAMC as Private 1828 and was demobilised on 17th February 1919 having served throughout the war and earning his 3 medals. 

Stanley is commemorated on the following Memorials:

Parish Church of Holy Trinity, Richmond Park, Liverpool in addition to a private plaque within the same church.

Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall, Panel 47 Left. 

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