Pte 27342 Patrick Lewis Hagan

• Age: 26
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Saturday 1st July 1916
• Commemorated at: Danzig Alley Cem, Mametz
  Panel Ref: Mem.19

27342 Private Patrick L. Hagan, 18^th Battalion, KLR.

Patrick Lewis was born in the third quarter of 1888 in Bootle, one of triplets of Irish parents Patrick Hagan and his wife Elizabeth (nee Gallagher) who were married in 1884 in Liverpool. His two siblings Michael and John died in infancy. 

By 1911 he is a 22 year old quarter master A.B., an Able Seaman usually mentoring inexperienced sailors, and was living at 4 Wyresdale Road, Walton with his cousins Mary Catherine, Elizabeth and Edith Kelly. Their mother Hannah is somehow not recorded. His father Patrick may have been an inmate of the Liverpool Workhouse on Brownlow Hill, a 63 year old dock labourer. 

At the time of his enlistment in Liverpool on the 20th May 1915, joining the 18th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 27342 Patrick was living at 24 Browning Street, Bootle and was employed by Lampart & Holt’s merchants and ship owners. 

Patrick arrived in France on an unknown date in 1916 as part of a reinforcement draft for the 18th Battalion.

He was killed in action on the 01^st July 1916 during the attack at Montauban.

18^th Battalion Diary

At 6.30am the artillery commenced an intensive bombardment of the enemy’s trenches. Zero Hour – 7.30 am – the battalion commenced to leave their trenches and the attack commenced. The attack was pressed with great spirit and determination in spite of heavy shelling and machine gun enfilade fire which caused casualties amounting to 2/3rds of the strength of the Battalion in action. The whole system of German trenches including the Glatz Redoubt was captured without any deviation from the scheduled programme. Consolidated positions and made strong points for defence against possible counter attacks.

Graham Maddocks provides more detail concerning the events of the day:

As the first three waves began to move forward towards the German reserve line, known as Alt Trench and then on to the Glatz Redoubt itself, they suddenly came under enfilading fire from the left. This was from a machine gun which the Germans had sited at a strong point in Alt Trench. The gun itself was protected by a party of snipers and bombers, who, hidden in a rough hedge, were dug into a position in Alt Trench, at its junction with a communication trench known as Alt Alley. These bombers and snipers were themselves protected by rifle fire from another communication trench, Train Alley which snaked back up the high ground and into Montauban itself. The machine gun fire was devastating and it is certain that nearly of the Battalion’s casualties that day were caused by that one gun. 

 Lieutenant Colonel Edward Henry Trotter  wrote in the conclusion of his account of the days action:

I cannot speak to highly of the gallantry of the Officers and men. The men amply repaid the care and kindness of their Company Officers, who have always tried to lead and not to drive. As laid down in my first lecture to the Battalion when formed, in the words of Prince Kraft:

“Men follow their Officers not from fear, but from love of the Regiment where everything had always and at all times gone well with them”.    

Joe Devereux in his book A Singular Day on the Somme gives the Casualty Breakdown for the 18^th Battalion as Killed in Action 7 Officers and 165 men and of those who died in consequence of the wounds 3 Officers and 19 men a total of 194 out of a total loss for the four Liverpool Pals Battalions of 257.

Patrick was buried in Vernon Street Cemetery, Carnoy but the location of his remains were lost probably through enemy shelling. He is now commemorated on the war memorial in the Dantzig Alley Memorial British cemetery, France.

The village of Mametz was carried by the 7th Division on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, after very hard fighting at Dantzig Alley (a German trench) and other points. The cemetery was begun later in the same month and was used by field ambulances and fighting units until the following November. The ground was lost during the great German advance in March 1918 but regained in August, and a few graves were added to the cemetery in August and September 1918. At the Armistice, the cemetery consisted of 183 graves, now in Plot I, but it was then very greatly increased by graves (almost all of 1916) brought in from the battlefields north and east of Mametz and from certain smaller burial grounds including:

VERNON STREET CEMETERY, CARNOY, in the valley between Carnoy and Maricourt, at a place called "Squeak Forward Position". 110 soldiers who died in July-October 1916 were buried here by the 21st Infantry Brigade and other units. 

Dantzig Alley British Cemetery now contains 2,053 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 518 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 17 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of 71 casualties buried in other cemeteries, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

His death was reported in the Liverpool Daily Post on 27th July 1916:

Patrick Lewis Hagan whose home is at 24 Browning-street, Liverpool, has been killed in action. He joined about a year ago, being at the time employed at Lamport and Holt's. He was 26 years of age and as a boy attended St James' Select School.  

His death was also reported in in the Nottingham and Midland Catholic News on the 05th August 1916 and also in the Bootle Times under the heading:

ANOTHER BOOTLE LAD

"News has been received from the War Office by his father, that Patrick Lewis Hagan, 24 Browning Street, Bootle was killed on July 01st, aged 28 years. He was selected as a sniper before the action during the "big push" as it is termed. He was a scholar of St James' Select School, Seaview Road, and was formerly employed by Lamport and Holt in the shore gang. He joined the Liverpool "Pals" Regiment and was highly respected by his comrades. His father greatly mourns his loss, as he was one of the best of sons and had many friends in the district where he resided. 

The Commanding Officer has sent a letter of sympathy to the father, and praises his son's work with his company while in France." 

Patrick is also remembered on the following war memorials:

Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall, Panel 55 Right as P S Hagan.

St James' Roman Catholic Church, Chestnut Grove, Bootle.

Bootle Civic Memorial, Stanley Road, Bootle.

His father probably died, aged 82, in 1927 and was buried on the 14th November at Ford Cemetery, his address St Augustine’s House, Aigburth Road, full title St Augustine's Home for the Poor, Aigburth (Little Sisters of the Poor). 

We currently have no further information on Patrick Lewis Hagan, if you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.