At 11:00pm on 4th August 1914, Great Britain, under the leadership of Herbert Henry Asquith, entered into what was to become known as ‘the war to end all wars’ [H.G. Wells].
Few would have imagined the full horror of what was to follow, and many men willingly volunteered to join the ranks of soldiers fighting for King and Country in the trenches on the Western Front and other theatres of war.
The townships that make up the borough of Knowsley also offered up their men, many of whom did not return after the Armistice, which was declared on 11th November,1918. They are commemorated on war memorials throughout the borough.
One such memorial stands at Eccleston Lane Ends, Prescot. The Eccleston Lane Ends War Memorial on the corner of St Helens Road and Burrows Lane pays tribute to the men of the old West Derby Hundred of the County Palatine of Lancaster for their service during the Great War. It was commissioned by Frederick Richard Dixon-Nuttall, of Ingleholme, Central Avenue, Eccleston Park.
F R Dixon-Nuttall inherited his father’s glass bottle making company (in Ravenhead Road) and was later instrumental in the formation of the United Glass Bottle Company (UGB) later United Glass. He was a respected local figure, being a founder member of Windle Bowling Club and Lifetime President of Grange Park Golf Club. He was a past Mayor of St Helens (1891, 1902), an Alderman until 1923 and he was involved in the establishment of the new St Helens Church in 1926.
His middle son, Lieutenant John Frederick, was killed on the night of 20/21 May 1915 whilst serving with the 1st West Lancashire Field Company Royal Engineers. He had joined the unit straight from Repton School in Southport, where he had been in the Officer Training Corps (OTC) and is buried in the New Irish Farm Cemetery near Ypres, Belgium.
Following John’s death, F R Dixon-Nuttall commissioned the Eccleston Lane Ends war memorial which was unveiled on 23rd July 1922 by the then Bishop of Liverpool. The monument is said to be modelled on eldest son Major William Francis Nuttall-Dixon, of the Royal Engineers, and his wife. Youngest son Thomas also served in the Royal Engineers, as a 2nd Lieutenant.
Kirkby’s Municipal Memorial stands in the Civic Square after being relocated from its original position outside the now-demolished Civic Buildings. The fallen from conflicts spanning the years from the First World War to Afghanistan in 2011 are commemorated. One name on the memorial is that of John Beesley.
From information found in the Archive, we can piece together some of the story behind the name. John Beesley was born in Kirkby in 1881 and was baptised at St Chad’s Church, Kirkby on 13 March 1881. His parents were James Beesley, born in Simonswood in 1857 and Elizabeth Beesley nee Smith, born in Netherton in 1858. Married on 16th August 1880, they lived in Kirkby for a short while before moving to Liverpool for several years, prior to returning to Kirkby, where the family lived on Ribblers Lane in a 4 roomed house. Over the years, James Beesley supported his family through working as a labourer, a carter and a forester. Sadly, Elizabeth Beesley died on 12th November 1892, at the age of 34, shortly after the death of her youngest child, Hannah, who passed away aged one year old in 1891.
In 1911, the family, headed by James, was listed in the census as living at the family home on Ribblers Lane. John, the oldest of the surviving siblings, was recorded as working as a labourer at the local stone quarry. His sister Ellen was born in January 1883 in Liverpool. Interestingly, in the England and Wales register of 1939, she is recorded as being employed as a 2nd Housemaid at Croxteth Hall, family seat of the Molyneux family, the Earls of Sefton. It seems that she never married and died in 1960. Brother George was a Christmas baby, born 23 December 1884 in Liverpool and he also saw active service, serving in the Royal Navy from 9th Jun 1905 until 13th May 1919. The youngest member of the family recorded in the 1911 census was Charles, who was born in May 1888, with his baptism taking place in June 1888 at St Peters, Everton.
However, times were changing and in 1914, John Beesley signed up for military service with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. His service number was 2012 and he served as a Private in the 2nd Battalion, before gaining promotion to Rifleman in 1916. He was killed on 3rd February 1918, his burial taking place in St Chad’s graveyard where he rests in the family grave.
Another of Kirkby’s WWI fallen whose name appears on the Kirkby Municipal Memorial was Anthony Bolton. He enlisted on 7th September 1914 at Seaforth and was posted to ‘B’ Company, 14th Battalion King’s Liverpool Regiment on the 17th of that month. He was killed in action whist serving as a Sergeant in the 18th Battalion King’s Regiment on 4th November 1918, the location listed as ‘France & Flanders’ in the ‘Soldiers died in the Great War 1914-1919’ listing compiled in the War Office and originally published in 1921.
Back at home, men who were perceived to be shirking their duty to fight ‘for King and Country’ would come under pressure to enlist: women would present men out of uniform with a white feather to publicly shame them. The ‘On War Service’ badge was issued during the First World War to identify men who were employed in essential war work and to protect them from such accusations of shirking and slacking. These badges were initially issued ‘unofficially’ by the companies who employed the men, but the scheme was adopted by the War Office in 1915, when the unofficial badges were withdrawn.
A badge for female munitions workers was issued by the War Office from May 1916. Over 270,000 ‘On War Service’ badges were issued to women between May and December 1916. An example of one of these badges can be found in the Archive. Issued by the War Office in 1916 to a female war effort worker, it was made by J R Gaunt and Sons Limited with the serial number 765152. J R Gaunt and Sons Limited was established in 1750, producing military and uniform buttons since 1870 in Birmingham and in London from 1899.
The impact of the Great War was massive: never had there been such tragic loss of life on all sides and the social and political ramifications were to be felt for many years to come.
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.”
[From For the Fallen by R.L. Binyon]
