St James WW1 Family History Day

Lives of the First Word War - Creating a Community

Just a short post today, I've decided my plan for adding the men from the St James Memorial to Lives of the First World War is to create a community and see how many of the men are 'seeded' already.

A community is pretty much what you'd expect from the title: a group of people who are connected in some way.

Creating a community is simple, on your dashboard click on the 'communities' link, then scroll down to 'add a community' you don't have to justify why you are grouping these people, just give your community a name, a brief description and if you represent an organisation connected to this community you can give details. I of course called this community St James, Toxteth, War Memorial and my organisation as the St James War Memorial Project.

To add a person to the community you first locate them in the bank of names already in the database, then when you have their profile open you have the option 'add to community' by their name. Select the community you wish to add them to (from your own managed communities only) and that's it. 

I've added 30 names to the community so far but there have been a few that haven't been in the database. Some of them will be added by the IWM in time - this is a long term project! but others will not be on their lists at all - I am thinking of Ernest C Benn who's death was not due to enemy action so he isn't on the CWGC and in the 'deaths at sea' register his death was recorded under his brother's name. There is no official record of him dying in WW1. I believe that at a later stage in the project I will be able to put forward a case for including him. 

Thanks for reading! 

Lives of the First World War

Apologies for the lack of updates on the blog recently.  One of the things I've been busy working on is getting the information about the St James men together ready to upload it to the Lives of the First World War project.

If you haven't heard about this amazing project by the Imperial War Museum then you really should go and check it out. When I first heard about it I was a bit skeptical, like many people I wondered how they were going to keep track of entries, how reliable the information was going to be etc. Then I was invited to be one of the testers. I kept my test entries small, just two men, but I tried to make their stories as full as I could - and I've been very impressed by the results. The system for uploading data isn't perfect, but it is very good and being improved all the time (taking note of suggestions from users too!)

My main reaction when I started to understand the project was one of awe, this is the most ambitious WW1 data-collection project ever. EVER. And it can work... but only if we all support it and contribute what we can.  Many of us spend a lot of time, money and energy researching the past and collecting information casualties and combatants of the First World War whether it be a single relative or tens of thousands of men from one regiment. The Lives of the First World War project wants to bring all of that together, all of it, every little bit, every scrap of information about every single person from the UK who lived through or died in the First World War.

This project is a gift to future generations who will be even more removed than the trenches than we are, and to ourselves, a way of sharing our work, our passion for remembrance and our pride in these men and women. It is also a gift to those who fought, those who never came home, those who came home damaged and those who had to watch them go and then pick up the pieces of their families, communities and lives when it was over. They will be remembered. In the past these men and women have been commemorated in stone and bronze, in poetry and prose. Now we are adding a national digital memorial as our 21st century commemoration.  One HUGE difference between this project and all memorials that have gone before is that it will include all men and women who made a contribution to the war, including civilian work.

So, I am planning on contributing what I can and I will soon be starting to add information about the men from the St James memorial, I'll post links on here for each man as I go, if you're a relative of one of the St James men, or have some information about anyone from the First World War why not go and get started? 

The first man from the St James Memorial to be added is my relative, Private William Edwin Noll. 

Amanda

Church records

On a recent visit to the archives at Liverpool Central Library I found a few snippets of information about the war memorial and St James Church.

I was disappointed to see that the Records of Services didn't give any details other than a title for the services but they were still interesting.  They showed that, as you would expect, the war was considered daily in church with either 'war intercession' or 'war litany' services/lessons.

The record of collections during services shows that money was collected for a variety of war-related causes including:

Roll of honour fund
St James wounded soldiers and prisoners of war
Blinded soldiers
Wounded soldiers
Sailors
French fund
Belgian fund
Armenian fund

I was also looking for family names connected with the memorial, there weren't any mentioned in the records of services but the Vestry meeting minutes had lists of sidesmen/women for each year (ushers)  and several of them shared surnames with the men on the memorial. for the more uncommon names Tonkies, and Reay we can be fairly sure that they were the same family, for Irvine, Clarke, Owen, Jones and Harker it seems very likely they were relatives but without their christian names recorded it is impossible to be sure.

I was very pleased to find a record of the cost of the memorial, the annual church warden accounts for 1920-1921 show 'St James War Memorial £22-4-11 which would be about £840 today... not quite the £10,000 it's going to cost for a replica!

Lance Corporal Marcus McLean 356377

Identification

There was only one Marcus McLean on the census, BMD and CWGC records and he was from Liverpool.

Family Information

Baptism records show that Marcus McLean was born in Liverpool on 6th September 1893 and was baptised in St Peter's Church on 22nd February 1894.

His parents were William and Sarah McLean and they lived on Roche Street

(I believe this is a misspelling of Roach St). William was a joiner.

source Ancestry.co.uk

In the 1901 census the McLean family were living at 32 Roach Street in Toxteth. William was still head of the household and working as a joiner. The census shows us that Marcus was the youngest of 7 children and the first member of the family born outside of Ireland.

At the time of the 1911 census the McLean family lived at 208 Windsor Street, Toxteth. William was still head of the household and stated his occupation as 'Undertaker and Joiner' working on his own account and at home; the 1911 Gore's Directory of Liverpool and Suburbs has the business listing for Mclean, William & Sons, Undertakers, 208 Windsor St.  Marcus was working as a builder's clerk, his siblings at home all had jobs that suggest a good education with 2 other clerks, one teacher and one undertaker's assistant in the family business.  

Military Service

Marcus McLean's Medal Index Card (below, source: ancestry.co.uk) shows that he was a private in the Liverpool Regiment with the regimental numbers 4868 and 356377.  These numbers show that he enlisted sometime in June 1915.

The card shows that Marcus McLean first entered the war on 24th December 1915 in France. He was awarded the Victory Medal, British War Medal and the 1915 Star, the card does not record his promotion to Lance Corporal.

Death and Commemoration

Marcus McLean was killed in action with the 10^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment on 9^th April 1918. 

The battalion war diary shows that in March the Battalion had been rested which means they were out of the front line and took part in various training exercises and organised activities such as performances by the Battalion concert party and a platoon 6-a-side football tournament (which was won by Transport Coy). On 28^th March the Battalion was moved to the front line. 31^st March was Easter Sunday.

On 1^st April the Battalion was occupying front line and support trenches directly opposite La Bassee Canal.  Over the next week there was some shelling by the enemy including gas shells, we made a successful raid on the German trenches and brought back a prisoner for identification. The diary records various incidents of sniping and bombs being thrown. It records that on the 8^th April the battalion received orders to relieve part of the Portuguese Division the following day then in the early hours of the 9^th April a heavy bombardment of our lines began, followed by the order for battle positions. The 10^th KLR moved to occupy their battle position in Tuning Fork Locality, they were heavily shelled with high explosives and gas shells en route and sustained heavy casualties. At 9.50am after 5 hours of heavy shelling, the Germans attacked along the front line.  The 10^th KLR held off the enemy attack but the Portuguese Division to their left could not, the Germans penetrated our lines and the 10^th KLR had to form a defensive flank on that side which they did using Loisne Central trench. The night was quiet.

Trench map showing the Tuning Fork area. Loisne Central would be in the very top left of the map if it was shown.

Marcus McLean is commemorated at Gorre British and Indian Cemetery. The following paragraphs are from the CWGC Cemetery Information Page for Gorre, and give the wider picture of the battle:

The British section of the cemetery was used by infantry and artillery units stationed in the area until April 1918, when the relative quiet of the sector was shattered by the German Spring Offensive and Gorre became a support post close behind the front line during the Battle of Estaire. This battle was one of two massive German assaults on the Commonwealth positions from Ypres to Festubert that became known as the Battle of the Lys. When the battle erupted on 9 April, the 55th (West Lancashire) Division occupied the front-line trenches running north from Givenchy to Richebourg L’Avoué. The Allied positions to their left, around the village of Le Touret, were held by Portuguese units. 
After a preliminary artillery bombardment that began on the evening of 7 April the German Sixth Army, spearheaded by storm troops, attacked in force early on the morning of the 9th. Heavy mist enabled the attackers to get very close to the Allied lines before they were observed and Portuguese units suffered heavy casualties and began to retire. Further south, the various formations of the 55th Division were hard pressed from the outset and the front line trenches around Givenchy were the scene of fierce fighting between British and German troops. The divisional brigade holding the northern section of the British line was forced to pull back, but well-organised counter-attacks and determined defence elsewhere enabled the 55th Division to hold its ground for the rest of the battle and prevent a major German breakthrough. Fighting continued in the trenches east of Gorre until 17 April when the German forces finally broke off the attack. In just over a week of fighting almost 3,000 officers and men of the Division had been killed, wounded, or taken prisoner, but the territory over which they had fought remained in Allied hands. 

Marcus McLean’s grave is ‘special memorial 2’ which I believe means that his is one of the graves which was lost due to shelling so he has a gravestone which indicates that he lies somewhere in the cemetery. There are only 4 of these special markers in the cemetery, the text on them reads "Believed to be buried in this cemetery". His mother had added to the inscription the motto of the 55th Division "THEY WIN OR DIE WHO WEAR THE ROSE OF LANCASTER"

Click here to see the CWGC entry for Marcus McLean.

You can view (and purchase) images of his gravestone on The War Graves Photographic Projectwebsite. His family in Liverpool also had him included on the family headstone which reads:

In

loving memory

of

William,

the beloved husband of

Sarah Cameron McLEAN,

who passed away 28th March 1918,

aged 63 years.

*Thy will be done.*

Also Marcus, L’Cpl: Lpool Scottish,

youngest son of the above,

killed in action in France 9th April 1918,

aged 24 years.

*Greater love hath no man than this.*

Marcus’s mother lost her husband and her youngest son within a few weeks. (I will add a photo of this headstone)

The entry in “UK Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1919” for Marcus McLean records the following information:

Name:	Marcus Mclean
Residence:	Liverpool
Death Date:	9 Apr 1918
Death Location:	France & Flanders
Enlistment Location:	Liverpool
Rank:	L/Corporal
Regiment:	King's (Liverpool Regiment)
Battalion:	10th Battalion
Number:	356377
Type of Casualty:	Killed in action
Theatre of War:	Western European Theatre

The 10th Battalion of the King's Liverpool Regiment were the Liverpool Scottish.  Click here to open  the Liverpool Scottish Regimental Museum website. This site also contains images of the Liverpool Scottish WW1 Roll of Honour, a beautiful book which of course contains Marcus McLean's name.

Marcus’s family and his fiance, Elsie Hodgson,  also posted the following notices in the Liverpool Echo:

 (25th April 1918)

(26th April 1918)