25th April has rightly come to be known as Anzac Day and is the focus for national commemoration in Australia and New Zealand. However, there was also plenty of British involvement on that day in 1915 and afterwards, and perhaps no more celebrated involvement than that of the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers which won, as reported in the Press, "Six VCs before breakfast" during the landing at W Beach on April 25th.
The following men from the 1st Lancashire Fusiliers died on the 25th April 1915, one hundred years ago this coming Saturday.
2597 Private Thomas Addison
1038 Private Charles Alderton
1774 Corporal Edgar Appleton
2304 Private Samuel Arney
2066 Private Edward Aspinall
2415 Private Walter Atkinson
7072 Private John Attwood
1338 Private Thomas Baines
1469 Lance Corporal Thomas Baison
6178 Private Frederick Balme
1063 Private George Luther Banbury
6412 Lance Serjeant Edward Bell
4610 Private John Bellis
1254 Private Thomas Belsey
2200 Private James Bamford Bennett
2383 Private John Birch
1698 Private John Birch
1888 Private Thomas Blackledge
2010 Private Fred Blundell
3234 Private James Boardman
828 Private John Bolas
2237 Private William Richard Bolton
1934 Private Walter Nelson Bone
1307 Private William Arthur Brace
4468 Private John Henry Bradbury
3410 Private Frank Breakey
8978 Private Martin Broderick
2303 Lance Corporal Bertie Bromley
1150 Private Charles Brown
2504 Private William Paul Bryant
6808 Private James Ulick Burke
1426 Private Samuel Callcutt
4182 Private Benjamin Cameron
1873 Private John Campbell
9032 Private Thomas William Carpenter
373 Private Alfred Carrington
1086 Private Reginald Carter
1190 Private Robert Sidney Cast
2008 Private William Henry Catharell
380 Corporal James Cawley
Second Lieutenant Ellis Clark
2037 Private Connorton
2038 Private Albert Cooper
2590 Private Philip Cooper
842 Private Thomas Corley
2000 Private William Cummings
1287 Lance Corporal John Dawtrey
1299 Private Joseph Doyle
2689 Private Francis Duffy
396 Corporal Samuel Dunderdale
2034 Private Sidney Dunham
1501 Private Frederick Eatwell
1746 Private Thomas Edwards
1937 Private Walter James Edwards
2194 Private James Elliott
924 Private Charles William Ellis
2260 Private Joseph Ellis
6263 Private Thomas Ellis
2407 Private James Faulkner
1808 Private John Fielding
1531 Private George Fry
6497 Serjeant James Geraghty
2612 Private Sidney Archibald Graddage
1635 Private William Alfred Greaves
1579 Private Ellis Greenwood
1680 Private Edward Arthur Herbert Griffiths
2463 Private Charles Groves
1597 Private James Henry Hancock
2708 Private John Thomas Hanson
1342 Private William Harrington
4879 Private Harrison
1512 Private William Harrison
2243 Private Herbert Haynes
4718 Private Ralph Hill
1166 Private Albert Holloway
1657 Private George Holt
5667 Private Arthur Horner
1427 Private Edward Houghton
1790 Private John Howarth
1517 Private Archibald John Howe
404 Serjeant John Hughes
3329 Private John Jarvis
1149 Private Hugh Jones
2563 Private George William Keates
1384 Private Frank Kelly
7253 Private David Kingswell
2349 Private Harry Knight
2098 Lance Corporal Edward Lawrence
6781 Private George Robert Lee
2715 Private Patrick Lennard
841 Lance Corporal Joseph Lomax
1616 Private Frank Lonsdale
1926 Corporal John Malone
1273 Private William Mann
1884 Private George John Mansfield
2290 Private Guy Carrington Marriott
1239 Private Frank Henry Marsham
Captain Thomas Bowyer-Lane Maunsell
2040 Private Robert John Mellish
1511 Corporal William Frederick Mercer
2527 Private William John Miller
1676 Serjeant Charles Mills
6822 Private William Moss
1487 Serjeant Arthur Henry Muir
1244 Private William Mccarthy
6063 Private Michael Mccormick
7329 Serjeant James Mcfadden
1627 Private John Mcguire
1833 Private Robert Mcloughlin
6058 Private Thomas Patrick Mcnamara
933 Private William Robert Neill
1889 Private John Norris
6616 Private Harry OBrien
1041 Private Hugh Patrick ONeill
1942 Private Maurice ORourke
4658 Private John Ogden
1720 Private Sidney Orders
1671 Private Edwin Orme
1396 Private Sidney Pavitt
1451 Lance Corporal George Pearce
2656 Lance Corporal John Trethowen Pearce
2140 Private William Pennington
Lieutenant Porter
1907 Private Henry Quarrie
1042 Private Arthur Rackley
1375 Private William Raeper
4292 Private Albert Ralph
2377 Lance Corporal Edward Rimmer
717 Serjeant Fred Rothwell
2128 Private James Ryan
2053 Private Frederick Sarginson
1488 Private Ernest Saunders
1446 Private William Savage
5028 Private William Robert Schofield
2164 Private Henry Seddon
2113 Private James Ernest Sheldon
2542 Private Thomas Shepherd
1715 Private John Silvester
9134 Lance Corporal Arthur Simpson
7604 Private John Slade
2291 Private William Slater
2547 Lance Corporal Harry Smith
789 Private Maurice Smith
1584 Lance Corporal Thomas Albert Smith
748 Corporal William Smith
1554 Private Frederick Charles Streatfield
1506 Serjeant Frank Edward Stubbs VC
2136 Private Harold Taylor
1122 Corporal Joseph Taylor
Captain Aubrey Jocelyn Nugent Thomas
2445 Private Charles Thompson
2162 Corporal Norman Thompson
1151 Private Henry John Thornton
1504 Private Tomey
1485 Private Percy Charles Turner
5620 Private Samuel Upton
944 Private Alfred Waldron
3925 Private Thomas Waters
1849 Private George Wickstead
2599 Private Frederick Wilkinson
1138 Lance Corporal John Wilkinson
1660 Private Luke Williams
Second Lieutenant John Stanley Williamson
2054 Private Lewis Alfred Willsher
6493 Private William Wilson
6520 Company Serjeant Major William George Wilson
2516 Private George Robert Wimbles
9500 Corporal Charles Wooldridge
2554 Private William Thomas Wyatt
The 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers was stationed in Karachi when Britain went to war in August 1914. It returned to England in January 1915 and sailed for Gallipoli via Egypt on the 16th March 1915, landing on W Beach on the 25th April.
The regular battalions had issued number 9999 in November 1903 and began a new number series the same month. The regimental numbers in the list above reflect this with a number range of 373 through to 9500.
In theory, all of these numbers could date from between 1903 and 1914. However; there will be men here whose numbers belong to the series that ended in 1903 and there may also be men with numbers in the 2000 to 6000 range who were drafts from the Special and Extra Reserve battalions and who joined these battalions between 1908 and 1914. The absence of 3/ and 4/ prefixes on their numbers however, renders them indistinguishable from their regular battalion colleagues.
Note too that 2008 Private William Henry Catharell has a killed in action date of 11th May 1915 recorded on his medal index card, even though CWGC records him as having died on the 25th April.
I've borrowed the image on this post from the Lancashire Landing website which shows survivors of the 25th April landing at a 50th reunion dinner on 25th April 1965. Helpfully, the veterans have been identified as follows:
Standing, left to right
H Hill
W Ward
2629 John Waine
W Walker
T C Dickson
2489 Reginald Danby
W T Smith
H L Lee
W G Campbell
H R Clark
2153 Sidney A Hall
W Elliott
A J Ginn
2424 Samuel E Knott
2332 Herbert Bradsell
A W Wilson
2075 Frank T Godwin
H Plummer
R Daley
D Miner MM
J Duffy
N Jeffreys MM
Seated, left to right
Harry Cavanagh
T Brain DCM, MM
Major Lionel Bassett Lipscomb Seckham MC
H R Clarke
H Carr
Captain R W Moore (RN)
Col George Edward Tallents DSO
Cdr A M Williams CBE, DSC (RN)
Lt Col John Elisha Grimshaw VC
Cdr H R Wilson OBE, DSC (RN)
Capt Charles Alexander Batham DCM
1841 George W Capon MM
I have added regimental numbers and forenames to the list above and would welcome further input on these 50th anniversary survivors to fully identify those for whom I have no numbers or names.
For help with your own regimental numbering or military research conundrums, check out my military research service.
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