L/Cpl 241632 Samuel Guy

Samuel James Guy was born on 19th January 1897, the son of Thomas Clark Guy and his wife Elizabeth (née Evans).  Civil birth registration gives his name as Samuel but he was baptised in St. Leonard’s, Bootle, on 10th February as Samuel James. His parents were living at 69 Southey Street, Bootle, and his father’s occupation listed as carter. His father, born in Toxteth Park, and his mother in Bootle, married on the 31^st August 1884 at St Mary's Church, Bootle, Thomas was a 19 year old carter of 104 Benedict Street, father John, whilst Elizabeth was aged 19 of 83 Brookhill Road, father James. They had seven children, of whom the first two died young; Samuel had older siblings Thomas, Ada and Albert, and a younger brother Frederick.

 

In 1901 the family is living at 14 Percy Street, Bootle, with four children. His father is a timber carter, Samuel is 4.  Also in the household is his mother’s brother, Frederick Evans, 24.  (Fred would serve in France with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and in 1917 suffer gunshot wounds to the head, elbow, and thigh. He was transferred to the Labour Corps and demobbed in March 1919.)

 

Their last child, Frederick, was born in Hoylake in 1902.  
 

The 1911 census finds the family back in Liverpool, living at 27 Gordon Road, Seaforth. His parents are both 46, his father is a carter, they advises that they had been married for 27 years and had 7 children, 5 of whom ahd survived. They have five children declared in the household; Thomas is 22, a sawyer, Ada is 20, a student, Albert is 17, an apprentice machinist, Samuel, 14, and Fred, 9, are at school. 

 

His sister Ada died on 20th May 1913, aged 22.

 

Samuel enlisted in Liverpool joining the 1/6th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Rifleman 3821 (Liverpool Rifles) He embarked from Southampton-Rouen on 10th February 1916 reaching the 55 Division Base Depot on 11th February 1916,  he left base for the front on 02nd March 1916. He was admitted to the 1/3 W.Lancs Field Ambulane on 30th June 1916 and into the 37th Casualty Clearing Station on 05th July ,  subsequently admitted to No.6 St.Hosp. on 06th July, then admittted to Div. St.Hosp. on 07th July. He was then admitted to No.2 Gen. Hosp., before being admitted to the Div. Gen. Hosp. on 09th August before boarding the Hospital ship Marama with Typhoid Fever and returned to England on 09th August. Upon his arrival in England he was admitted to the Uni. Hosp. with paratyphoid on 11th Auugst 1916.

Following this illness he re-embarked from Folkestone on 23rd March 1917, joined the 24th Infantry Brigade Depot on 24th March 1917 and was subsequently posted from 12th April 1917 to the 19th Battalion K.L.R. with his new service number 241632. 

The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he served for two years, enlisting when he was 19 years old.

 

He was serving with the 19^th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Lance-Corporal No 241632 when he was killed in action on the 28^th March 1918 during the German Spring Offensive.

The Battalion diary records the events of the day as follows:

During the morning the enemy attacked the troops on our right flank and succeeded in capturing ARVILLERS, menacing our right flank. Three companies of the Battalion had to be immediately echeloned backwards as protection, the Battalion engaging the enemy, who were attempting to come out of ARVILLERS. This position was held during heavy fighting until 2pm when the Battalion was informed that French troops had come into position in the rear. In order for the Division to be relieved the Battalion had to hold their ground whilst the 2^nd Bedfordshire Regt and 2^nd Bn. R.S.F.’s passed through on their way to the rear. At 4pm the Battalion commenced to move off in small parties, passing through the French, and marching through MEZIERES, MOREUIL to MORISEL where hot dinner was provided. The Battalion then formed up and moved up by companies to ROUVREL and were billeted for the night. By this time the total casualties had reached 23 Officers and 457 O.R.

Samuel 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 parents placed a notice in the Liverpool Echo on 1st May 1918:

“March 28, killed in action, age 21 years, Lance Corporal Samuel Guy, K.L.R., dearly-beloved third son of Thomas and Elizabeth Guy, 24 Rawson Road, Seaforth. (Greatly missed by all who knew him.)”

Soldiers’ Effects, under the name Samuel James, shows that his mother Elizabeth received his Army effects and a War Gratuity of £12.  The pension card, in the name of his mother, living at 24 Rawson Road, Seaforth, Liverpool, shows a pension was refused, reason unknown.

 

His brother Albert enlisted in the Pals, served four years in the 18th K.L.R., and was discharged on 12/11/1918 with a Silver War Badge.

 

His mother died in 1922, his youngest brother Frederick died on 04th July 1925, at the age of 23, and his father in 1931.

 

Samuel is commemorated on the Memorial in St. Hildeburgh, Hoylake.

 

Samuel is also remembered on his Uncle Frederick’s gravestone in Holy Trinity Churchyard, Wavertree -