Prescot Roll of Honour

Service Details

The 20th (4th City) Battalion of the King's (Liverpool Regiment) was formed in Liverpool on 16 October 1914, by Lord Derby. On 30 April 1915 it was attached to 89th Brigade, 30th Division.

The battalion landed in France on 7th and 8th November 1915. After spending the first night in camp at Boulogne, they entrained and moved south to the Pont Remy area. On the 17th, they undertook a two day march to Flesselles and on the night of the 18th, they billeted at Vaux.

Several days training followed then on the 28th the battalion once again moved, this time to Bernaville. However, the following day the battalion was on the march again, this time to Halloy, having received orders to be attached to the 37th Division for digging purposes.

There they remained until 17th December, when they marched to Berles-au-Bois, where they began trench training in earnest until Christmas Day, when they came out of the trenches and began to move back to their own brigade. They reached Halloy the same night and then the following morning left at 9 a.m. for Bernaville. The battalion suffered its first casualties around this time, having two men wounded in the trenches.

New Year's Day 1916 found the battalion out of the front line, being in billets at Bernaville. On the morning of the 2nd, the battalion marched to Naours for attachment to the 90th Brigade, then on the 3rd they marched to Pont Noyelles, on the 4th to Sailly and on the 5th to Suzanne!

On the 6th, the battalion marched to the trenches, relieving the 1st Battalion DCLI. They were now in the Maricourt sector. On the night of the 7th, the enemy made a sudden grenade attack. This was driven off with the attackers suffering heavily at a cost of one man in the battalion being killed and three wounded.

Throughout the remainder of January the battalion, along with the 17th, relieved each other alternatively in the line. They recorded that over 5,000 enemy shells had been fired at the sector, resulting and just two men killed and two wounded.

The battalion remained in the trenches in this sector until the end of March, with a visit in the trenches by Lord Derby at the beginning of March. Throughout this period, they suffered a low but steady stream of casualties due to the usual attrition.

Private Farrell was one of those casualties.

He was originally buried in Maricourt Military cemetery but in the concentration of cemeteries after the war, his body was exhumed in 1924 and reinterred at Cerisy-Gailly.

Thomas Farrell's Medal Index Card confirming his arrival in France in November 1915. He was entitled to the 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal

Thomas Farrell's headstone at Cerisy-Gailly Military Cemetery