Private William Henry Birchall   50591

19^th Battalion  King’s Liverpool Regiment
Formerly T13/029861 Royal Army Service Corps

William Henry was born in 1886, son of John and Ellen Birchall of Stanley Gate farm, Bickerstaffe. In those days Stanley Gate was run as a public house and also a farm. It was the farm half that his parents were in charge of and so this is where William was brought up and spent his early life.

On the 5th February 1907, he married Martha Rosbotham who lived just down the road at Holly Farm (now the Sandpiper Restaurant). She was a schoolteacher at Bickerstaffe school, and was niece to Sir Thomas Rosbotham. They were to live first at Ottershead Farm, Westhead, where they bred shire horses. Later a move was made to a farm near Earlstown, Newton-Le-Willows, St.Helens.

William first joined the Royal Army Service Corps, and spent the next three and a half years teaching officers to ride horses before they were sent overseas. As many of these officers had never ridden a horse before, they would give private Birchall a 10-shilling note, (50 pence) to find them a ‘quiet one’. In this period, he spent 6 months in charge of a war department farm in Southern England. In July 1917 he was sent to the Ypres area of Belgium, where he met up with his Uncle Bob Rosbotham and wrote a letter home saying that they had had a drink together.

By 20^th September 1917, William had joined the 19th Battalion, Kings (Liverpool Pals) Regiment. It was on that date which, elsewhere on the Salient, was the opening day of the offensive, later referred to as ‘The Battle of the Menin Road’. An attempt was made to try and capture two block-houses known as ‘The Twins’. A raiding party consisting of Captain C. Laird and twenty-five other ranks left the British front lines at 6am and moved into no-mans land. However they were soon spotted and machine guns opened fire from the blockhouses. Despite a most determined effort to carry out the objectives, Captain Laird and six other ranks were killed, including William Henry. He received serious leg injuries, but couldn’t immediately be brought back to safety. His body was never found.

William Henry Birchall is commemorated on Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium on panels 31/34. This is just off the N303, 8 Km. East of Ypres, near Passchendale, Belgium.