Edward Patrick Anderson

[sooty24]

I am looking for the service record of Edward Patrick Anderson He died in WW1 on 08/08/1916 in France. He was born in Mullinavat Co. Kilkenny. I have located the record of his death on CWGC site.
Mullinavat is misspelled as Mellinvat. He served in The King's Liverpool Regiment His number was 307115.
I would be most grateful for any help
Thanks
Sooty24

[ShaunJ]

There's a tiny bit more information in "Soldiers Died in the Great War".

It says his residence was in Whitinsville, Massachusetts and that he enlisted in Liverpool

[t mo]

it doesn,t look like it survived the bombing raid in ww2 as nothing apart from a medal index card is coming up [ these were kept separate from the service records ] .
regards
trevor

[sooty24]

Thank you both very much for the replies. At least I know a little more that when I started.
Thanks again

[geocomer]

Hello Sooty:
Edward Patrick Anderson was born in 1888 in Whitinsville, Mass.  He was not born in Mullinavat
Kilkenny (his father was). He died on 8/8/1916 in the Battle of the Somme. His body was never recovered and his name is listed on the Thiepval Memorial in France.

[km1971]

307115 was in a block issued to the 8th Battalion Liverpool Regiment - the Liverpool Irish - in March 1917. So his death must not have been confirmed until after that date. The National Archives have his number at the time of death as 4785.

8th August 1916 was the attack on Guillemont. One version of events says when the Irish took their first objective they failed to secure several dugouts. The Germans emerged trapping close to 500 Irish and 1st Bn Liverpools who had moved on. The 1st Bn Liverpool Scottish attacked at 04.20 the next morning to try and extract and in the process suffered 45% casualties. The Irish and Regulars had already surrendered.

The War Diary is available here - http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7354877

Ken

[writer133]

Three battalions from 55 Division attacked at Guillemont on 8th August 1916. The 1/8th King's (Liverpool Irish) on the left; 1/4th King's Own Royal Lancaster in the centre and the 1/5th King's Liverpool on the right. The attack was a disaster: The King's Own were faced by intact wire in front of the sunken lane and were cut to pieces before they could get through it, leaving the right flank of the Liverpool Irish open. The trench line they were attacking had been missed off the Barrage Map and was unmolested by British artillery. The Liverpool Irish reached Guillemont, but were surrounded there and those still alive, forced to surrender when their ammunition was expended, only two men making it back to friendly lines. As mentioned above, Guillemont was a maze of inter-connected dugouts and the enemy was able to come up behind them. Only the 1/5th King's made any progress, seizing about 200 yards of ground and part of Cochrane Alley.

The sketch map below focuses on the King's Own, but the Liverpool Irish attacked in line with them, though north of the sunken road that is the modern Montauban - Guillemont Road today. If you visit the area, stand at the Guillemont end of Guillemont War Cemetery- the jumping off point was just a few yards nearer Guillemont, with the right hand platoon touching the road. The photo is taken from the position of the German machine gun that caused so much damage to the King's Own and mainly shows their advance, but the Liverpool Irish would have advanced on the right of this photo. (I hold the copyright to both map and photo, as they're from my book on the 1/4th, but have no objections to any private use of them)

(Just to add- 1/King's Liverpool did not attack at Guillemont on 8th August- 55 Division was a TF division)

[km1971]

Just to add- 1/King's Liverpool did not attack at Guillemont on 8th August- 55 Division was a TF division

Sorry repeated a typo on Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_Scottish

Ken

[geocomer]

Thank you both (Km1971 & Writer 133) for your prompt replies and information - REALLY amazing!
It helps to have a real conception of how the Battle of the Somme was fought and to better understand how Private Anderson fit into it.  Do you know if it is true that for most (many?) of the
British soldiers involved, that the Somme was their first major fight and they were "unseasoned"
- so to speak? Edward Anderson was my grandfather's first cousin and was American born.
 His uncle (also an Edward Anderson) had served for nearly 10 years in the Royal House Artillery,Royal Field, 18th Irish  Regiment and 9th Queens Lancers  spent most of it in the mid-east. (he served under Field Marshal Earl Roberts and  apparently once had a bit of a set-to with Lord Kitchener who threatened to court-martialed!)  He gave an interview to the "Boston
Daily Globe" on 11/29/ 1914 about his service under General Roberts who he described as the "greatest friend a soldier ever had". I speculate that Edward  Patrick may have been inspired by his
uncle's tales and decided to join up himself.