Pte 32890 George Halliday

• Age: 31
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Saturday 1st July 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.

32890 Private George HALLIDAY, 18^th Battalion KLR.

George Halliday was born in Liverpool on 06th October 1884 the son of David Tennant Halliday and his wife Elizabeth Jane (nee Matthews) who were married in 1882 at St Peter's Church in Liverpool. He was baptised at St Peter's Church in Liverpool on 20th October 1884. The family address is shown as Limekiln Lane and his father's occupation is shown as a labourer.

On the 1891 census the family are living at 78 Dalrymple St, Scotland Rd.

Father David aged 29, a dock labourer, mother Elizabeth aged 25, children George aged 7, and John 4mths(all born Liverpool). 

The family is shown as Holliday on the 1901 Census, living at 2 Garden Lane, Rupert Terrace, Everton. George is 17 years of age, working as a shop boy in a printing works, and is living with his parents and younger brother Hugh. His father is described as a bricklayer's labourer born in Liverpool in 1862, whilst his mother is shown as born in Liverpool in 1866. His younger brother Hugh is aged 5 and was born in Liverpool.

By 1911 the family, still showing as Holliday on the Census are now living at 14 Mary Terrace, Salisbury Street, Everton. George is now shown as 26 years of age, single, and is employed as a general labourer. His father is now a dock labourer, the census records that the couple have had five children sadly three of whom had died. George's younger brother Hugh is now 15 and is employed at a glass bottle factory.   

He married Maggie Burnes at St Mary's Church, Walton on the Hill on 18th November 1912. According to the 1911 census she was born in Heckmondwike, Dewsbury and the daughter of Alfred Henry and Eleanor Jane Burns. 

They had two children; George Alfred born on the 3rd June 1913 and Sydney David born on the 14th May 1915.   

George joined the 18th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 32890 in Liverpool on 08th November 1915. At the time of enlistment he was living at 9 Cowl Street, Everton, Liverpool. He sailed to France on 15th March 1916 as part of a reinforcement draft for the 18^th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment.

He was killed in action on the 01^st July 1916 during the attack on Montauban on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme.

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. 

George's body was not recovered or was subsequently lost as he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.

The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916.

On 01st August 1932 the Prince of Wales and the President of France inaugurated the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy. The inscription reads: “Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.”

He was originally declared as Missing but was finally reported as killed in action in the Liverpool Daily Post on the 7th August 1916. 

OF THE “PALS.” 

Private Halliday has been killed in action. He joined in November 1915 and was drafted to France in March 1916. He was 32 years of age and leaves a wife and two children who reside at 9 Cowl-street, Everton. 

Liverpool Daily Post 25th Aug 1916 

PREVIOUSLY REPORTED WOUNDED, NOW REPORTED KILLED. 

Liverpool Regiment - Halliday, 32890, G. (Liverpool); 

Soldiers effects and pension were awarded to his widow Maggie, 126 Friar St, dob 5^th May 1895. 

On the 1921 census at Friar St, it states Maggie was born Yorkshire(Dewsbury) in 1895, her father Alfred. 

Maggie appears on the 1939 register at 18 Elderdale Rd, Anfield, living with police constable William McCauley. They were still together in 1970 at 51 Rector Road, Anfield. She died aged 89 in 1982, cremated 26^th November, her address 104 Albany Road, Anfield. 

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