Prescot Roll of Honour

An image of Charles from an Ancestry family tree

Service Details

Charles Ainsworth's entry on the Prescot Roll of Honour is based on information provided by his family that he worked as a Butcher in Prescot, his wife Elizabeth being a Cook for Lord Derby.

Charles was born on 19th November 1886 in Bootle, the son of Thomas William and Ellen (nee Howard) Ainsworth

His service number shows that he attested for military service in November 1914.

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.

On 28th August 1915, Charles married Elizabeth McKnight

After training in Grantham, the battalion landed in France on 7th and 8th November 1915, Charles Ainsworth being with them at this time. 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!

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.

By the end of June 1916 they were lined up in readiness for the forthcoming Somme offensive. The Battalion were part of the attack on Maricourt on 1st July, losing 22 men killed in that attack and a further 32 killed as the month progressed.

By 30th, they were at Maurepas, launching a new attack at 4:45 am that day. Thick fog, resulting in visibility being reduced to 10 yards in some places, caused great difficulty but the attack progressed. By late morning, the enemy had launched a machine gun attack causing some 30 casualties. All runners sent to Battalion HQ were either killed or missing but ultimately, the remnants of the attack occupied the objective, MALTZ HORN RIDGE, by the end of the day.

The Battalion war diary reported 66 killed, 183 wounded and 124 missing.

The final toll later turned out to be 155 men killed.

Included in that number of missing men was Charles Ainsworth. The fortunes of war denied him a marked grave and he is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial to the Missing of the Somme

After Charles was officially reported missing, his mother appealed in the Liverpool Echo for any information on him.

Charles' entry on the Thiepval Memorial