Unit/Regiment	Royal Air Force
Date of Death	03/09/1918	Age at Death	18
Burial/Memorial & Reference	Pudsey Cemetery F “C” 21
Census Details	See below
Birth/Marriage/Death Registrations	Birth registered Q4/1899, Prescot, Vol 8b, Page 675
Research Ref. No.	P323

 

 Service Details

The Parish Magazine of 24th September 1918 reported “Flight Cadet Joseph Edward Denton, 18, was accidentally killed in a successful effort to avoid a collision in the air in Yorkshire. He was born in Eccleston Street, where the watch factory now stands”.

Records show that Joseph Denton was born in Prescot on the 11th December 1899, but by the time of the 1901 census the family had moved to Lytham St Annes, where they lived at Twiggy Lane. The census shows that Joseph Edward Denton was the only child of Edward Denton, a 22 year old Electrician, and his 20 year old wife, Martha. Edward had been born in Atherton and had married Martha Fairclough of Prescot in the summer of 1899.

When the 1911 census was taken, the family had again moved and were now at 18, Somerset Road, Pudsey in Leeds. Edward was working as an Electrical Engineer for the Borough Council, Joseph was a scholar and the family also included daughter Edna, just two weeks old.

Joseph Edward Denton worked as a reporter for the Yorkshire Evening Post in Leeds from August 1914 to August 1917, when he joined up. The earliest record found shows him training at Hendon on 4th May 1918, transferred to 27 Training Squadron on 1st June 1918, then finally to 21 Training Squadron on 16th July 1918.

Cadet Denton was flying an AVRO 504, numbered D3610 and it appears he was in a low dive when a mid air collision occurred. He was with 21 TD squadron.

His final address was listed as Rosemond Villas, The Lanes, Pudsey, Leeds.

It would seem that member’s of his mother’s family still lived in Prescot and they had informed the Parish Magazine of his death.  To the best of my knowledge, Joseph is not recorded on any war memorial in Prescot.
 

 

Joseph Denton’s grave in Pudsey Cemetery, Leeds

 

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Unit/Regiment	"C" Coy, 17th Bn, Manchester Regiment
Date of Death	22/03/1918		Age at Death		19
Burial/Memorial & Reference	Pozieres Memorial Panel 64 to 67
CWGC Family Details (if shown)	Son of Mr. R. E. and Mrs. E. Dillon, of 16, Chatsworth St., Liverpool.
Birth/Marriage/Death Registrations	Birth Registered Q4/1898, Prescot, 8b, 713
SDGW – Where Born	Prescot, Lancs	Enlisted		Liverpool	Resided
How Died	Killed In Action			Theatre of War	France & Flanders
Research Ref. No.	P079

 

Service Details

On 31 August 1914, an advertisement was published in local Manchester newspapers inviting the clerks and warehousemen of the City’s major employers to enlist in a newly formed Battalion of “Pals”. By the end of the following day, the Battalion (which would become the Regiment’s 16th Battalion) had its full complement. Recruitment for the 17th Battalion started immediately and, by 3 September, this too had its full complement. Over the coming weeks, more men would join and would fill a total of 8 Battalions of Pals.

On 19 September, the 17th Battalion came together as a proper unit for the first time and marched to Heaton Park where it trained for the next seven months. Over Christmas and New Year, there was further recruitment and this allowed some unfit men to be “weeded out”. In April, the troops moved to Grantham and, later, to Salisbury Plain. On 9 November 1915, the Battalion crossed the Channel, landing at Boulogne. There followed further “on the job” training in the skills of trench warfare. The Battalion’s first fatality was on 13 December when 2nd Lieutenant R L Johnston was killed by an anti-aircraft shell. There would over 700 more deaths before the War ended.

The Pals first “went over the top” on 1 July 1916, on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme. This was the worst day for casualties in the history of the British Army but in a rare success on the battlefield, the 17th Battalion captured the village of Montauban - its main objective. As elsewhere, success had come had a high cost. The Battalion’s numbers were reduced to about half strength. Around 500 were dead, wounded or missing.

After a few days rest, the Battalion was in action again in a failed attack on the nearby Trones Wood. More casualties were suffered and, afterwards, 570 replacement troops arrived. These new men were from all over the country and, effectively, the Battalion was never again a unit of Pals drawn from the clerks and warehousemen of the City.

The men of the 17th would take part in two further unsuccessful attacks before the Battle of the Somme ended in the late autumn. At dawn on 30 July, they advanced from the now-captured Trones Wood towards the village of Guillemont but the advance stalled under heavy machine gun and artillery fire.

A few weeks later, they attacked again towards the village of Flers but were driven back by intense machine gun fire. Many men were killed before they got 20 yards from their own trenches.

The Battalion now moved towards the Arras sector. Its role as one of the Army’s “shock attack” units was now well established and, on 23 April 1917, it took part in an assault on the German defences known as the Hindenberg Line. The attack, at dawn, was initially successful but the Germans counter-attacked on two occasions. By nightfall, the Battalion was withdrawn with a strength of only 260 men from the 650 who had gone into action.

The following months were relatively quiet until July when the Battalion moved to the Ypres sector and took part in the attack on the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres (often known as Passchendaele). The men captured their objective and were withdrawn in the early hours of the following day.

The remainder of 1917 was a relatively quiet period with the Battalion spending long periods in the reserve areas well away from the dangers of the front line. This would all change in the spring of 1918. The Battalion had returned to the forward areas near the French town of St Quentin in preparation for an anticipated German attack. The attack was duly delivered on 21 March and the Germans quickly overran the front line held by the 16th Manchesters. The advancing enemy reached the support positions held by the 17th in the early afternoon and fierce fighting took place for several hours. Many of the Manchesters were taken prisoner, others were killed or wounded. Only small numbers managed to escape. The remnants of the Battalion would continue to retreat for several days along with the rest of the British Army.

John Dillon was one of the men killed in the fierce fighting on the 22^nd March. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Pozieres Memorial

 

 

John Dillon’s inscription on the Pozieres Memorial

 

John Dillon's Medal Index Card

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Unit/Regiment	1/7th Bn., Manchester Regiment
Date of Death	12/10/1915		Age at Death		28
Burial/Memorial & Reference	Alexandria (Chatby) Military and War Memorial Cemetery D 47
Birth/Marriage/Death Registrations	Birth Registered Q2/1887, Prescot, 8b, 680
SDGW – Where Born	Prescot, Lancs	Enlisted		Manchester	Resided
How Died	Died			Theatre of War	Egypt
Research Ref. No.	P080

 

Service Details

On the 4th August 1914, the battalion was based at their HQ at the Drill Hall in Burlington Street, Manchester, On the 20th they marched out to the Camp at Hollingworth Lake, Littleborough near Rochdale. Roughly 90% of the men volunteered for Imperial Service. The battalion was part of the Manchester Brigade, East Lancashire Division.

On the 10th September 1914, the battalion sailed from Southampton in a convoy of fourteen transport ships for Egypt, part of the first Territorial division to leave England on Active Service. They passed Malta on the 21st September, (passing the regulars going the other way the next day) and arrived at Alexandria on 25th September.

On arrival, half of B Company stayed on board and proceeded to Cyprus, where they stayed until the battalion departed to the Dardanelles. The main part of the battalion then went to Port Said and sailed down the Canal to Port Sudan on the 30th September. A half company was left there to garrison the port,  the remainder travelled on by train to Khartoum and relieved the Suffolks there.

In the Sudan in the next three months, the battalion were given many different tasks including guarding the railways ( with armoured trains), occupying hill stations and even a half company being transformed into the British Camel Corps. In April 1915 the battalion moved, after a pleasant stay, from Khartoum to Cairo. On the 3rd May the battalion embarked aboard the S.S. Ionian and on the 7th May they arrived at V beach Gallipoli as part of the 127th Brigade, 42nd (East Lancs) Division.

On the 11th the battalion made it's way to the front lines through trenches and gullies full of water. On the 4th June they advanced under a full moon and dug in in front of the Turkish trenches. At 8.00 am the bombardment started and at 11.30 the battalion attacked the trenches in front of them. A & C Coys took the first trench, B & D passed through them and took the next trench. At this point the battalion came under heavy fire from the right flank and rear causing many casualties. All day long the troops held the trench against Turkish counter attacks with help from other Manchesters and Lancashire Fusiliers. The men were forced to abandon the forward position as the enfilading fire cut their numbers and no reinforcements arrived. The withdrawal proved to be more costly than the advance and the battalion lost many men. The survivors were rested on Imbros for a few days and then returned to the peninsula.

On the 6th August, the British bombardment started and the troops advanced up to Achi Baba, during the advance the 7th sent in C Coy as reinforcements as streams of wounded men returned, Later in the day another two companies were sent up to support the Worcesters. The men went through a 'tornado of fire' through the dead and wounded to try and find the stranded Worcesters. Eventually both companies lined up in a shallow gully and went about bringing in the wounded.. It was decided that the only option was withdrawal and the two companies were brought back in.

In the morning the assault was renewed with a bombardment on the redoubt and the barricade that had caused so much trouble the day before. C and B Coys advanced but it was obvious that the shelling had proved unsuccessful as men were mown down by the Turkish machine guns. In late afternoon the survivors struggled back in and during the evening stretcher-bearers brought in the wounded. This action was diversionary as the Australians attacked out of Suvla, it was later that month when the battalion heard it was all in vain.

On the 15th August the battalion was pulled out of the front line to Scotch dug-outs, two and a half miles behind the lines where they were allowed some rest. On the 19th the 7th moved back up to the front, to Gully Ravine, where the routine of trench life of Gallipoli continued until the evacuation. Dysentery and diarrhoea, as well as Turkish snipers reduced the ranks. When out of the trenches the men had other duties as bringing up supplies and mining. On the 8th September the battalion moved to a new position, Border Barricade, where the 7th lost 13 men when the Turks exploded a mine under their position, later they lost another three when a British trench mortar fell short. As the campaign slowly slipped into stalemate and men from the battalion were attached to various units as signallers machine gunners etc, putting strain on the ones left., their health suffered and the only relief from trench life was sea bathing. In October the battalion moved to Fusilier Bluff, close to the Turkish line.

Private Dinsdale died in Egypt, probably from sickness or disease. It is not clear how much service he saw in Gallipoli or when he returned to Egypt.

 

 

George Dinsdale’s Medal Index Card showing his arrival in Gallipoli on 6^th May 1915

 

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Unit/Regiment	3rd Bn., King's (Liverpool Regiment)
Date of Death	14/09/1920	Age at Death	51
Burial/Memorial & Reference	Prescot Churchyard NP 323
Census Details	1871 Census - In Woolton Road, Wavertree, live Richard Disley, a 31 year old coachman and his wife Ellen, 32. Their children are shown as Margaret (10), George (8), William (5), James (4) and Richard (1).  1911 Census - The Disley family lived at 4, Duke Street, Prescot. Richard, aged 41, worked in the Tank House of theWire Works lagging drums. His wife, Elizabeth, was 33 years old and they had been married for 13 years. In that time, they had 7 children, 4 of whom were still alive and living with them - Richard (7), Amy (5), Joy (4) and James (2).
Birth/Marriage/Death Registrations	Birth Registered Q3/1869, West Derby, 8b, 527 Death Registered Q3/1920, Prescot, 8b, 654
Notes	Transferred to (216501) Labour Centre (Park Hall)
Research Ref. No.	P081

 

Unit/Regiment	1st West Lancs Field Coy, Royal Engineers
Date of Death	21/05/1915	Age at Death	24
Burial/Memorial & Reference	New Irish Farm Cemetery XXX D 3
CWGC Family Details (if shown)	Son of Mr. F. R. Dixon-Nuttall, of "Ingleholme," Eccleston Park, Prescot, Lancs
Census Details	1901 Census - Frederick R Dixon-Nuttall, a 48 year old Glass Bottle Manufacturer, his wife Louisa (46) and their sons Frank (7) and Thomas (6), live at Ingleholme in Eccleston Park. John, aged 9, was away at school and is listed as a "Pupil" at Mount Eyrie Private School, 33, Park Crescent, Southport 1911 Census –   Frederick Dixon-Nuttall and his wife of 21 years, Louisa, lived in Eccleston Park with their three sons William (26), John (19) and Thomas (16).Both William and John, along with their father, are recoded as Glass Bottle Manufacturers.
Birth/Marriage/Death Registrations	Birth registered Q3/1891, Prescot, Vol 8b, Page 673
Notes	Frederick Dixon-Nuttall donated the Lane Ends memorial after the death of his son, John, early in 1915. The Public Monuments and Scripture Association notes “The monument was commissioned by Dr. Dixon-Nuttall who lost a son in the war. Local St. Helens history reports that the soldier was modelled on a surviving son and the mother on the sons wife. Liverpool Council accepted custody after unveiling on 23/7/1922. Eccleston parish took over in 1985 and had local people to clear the site. Originally on grass, the brick wall, paving, steps were built and the trees and shrubs were then put in.” Unusually, there are no casualty names on the memorial. His brothers also served with the Royal Engineers. William Francis was a Major, Thomas a 2/Lt
Research Ref. No.	P318

 

Service Record

Lt John Frederick Dixon-Nuttall, born in 1891, served with the 1st West Lancashire Field Company RE. He was educated at Repton School where he had been a member of the OTC (Officer Training Corps). He joined his unit immediately on leaving school.

Sadly, John was killed by a German sniper on the night of the 20/21 May 1915 and is buried in New Irish Farm Cemetery which is located just outside Ieper (Ypres) in Belgium

 

 

 

 

 

Lt. Dixon-Nuttall’s death announced in the London Times of 29^th May 1915

 

Capt. Dixon-Nuttall's MiD card

 

 

John Dixon-Nuttall’s grave at New Irish Farm Cemetery

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