Arthur W Swinnerton WW1

In Memory of
Rifleman ARTHUR WATTS SWINNERTON

3758, 1st/6th Bn., The King’s (Liverpool Regiment)
who died age 22
on 25 September 1916
Son of Francis and Mary Swinnerton, of 389, Walton Lane, Walton, Liverpool.

Remembered with honour
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL

cwgc_thiepval

Commemorated in perpetuity by
the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

www.cwgc.org

cwgc_thiepval

Additional Information

Arthur Swinnerton died towards the end of an horrific 3 month long assault to gain control of Thiepval – an offensive which had begun on 1st July that year and which the generals intended to have completed in one day. It seems that Arthur Swinnerton was one of thousands of soldiers from that battle – the Battle of the Somme – who have no known grave. Arthur Swinnerton was the brother of Edith Marian Swinnerton, wife of David Ralston of Liverpool.

Additional Information From www.cwgc.org

Cemetery: THIEPVAL MEMORIAL

Country: France

Locality: Somme

Visiting Information: The Panel numbers (or Pier and Face) quoted at the end of each entry relate to the panels dedicated to the Regiment served with. In some instances where a casualty is recorded as attached to another Regiment, his name may alternatively appear within their Regimental Panel (or Pier and Face). Please refer to the on-site Memorial Register Introduction to determine the alternative panel numbers (or Pier and Face) if you do not find the name within the quoted Panels (or Pier and Face).

Location Information: The Thiepval Memorial will be found on the D73, off the main Bapaume to Albert road (D929). Each year a major ceremony is held at the memorial on 1 July.

Historical Information: On 1 July 1916, supported by a French attack to the south, thirteen divisions of Commonwealth forces launched an offensive on a line from north of Gommecourt to Maricourt. Despite a preliminary bombardment lasting seven days, the German defences were barely touched and the attack met unexpectedly fierce resistance. Losses were catastrophic and with only minimal advances on the southern flank, the initial attack was a failure. In the following weeks, huge resources of manpower and equipment were deployed in an attempt to exploit the modest successes of the first day. However, the German Army resisted tenaciously and repeated attacks and counter attacks meant a major battle for every village, copse and farmhouse gained. At the end of September, Thiepval was finally captured. The village had been an original objective of 1 July. Attacks north and east continued throughout October and into November in increasingly difficult weather conditions. The Battle of the Somme finally ended on 18 November with the onset of winter. In the spring of 1917, the German forces fell back to their newly prepared defences, the Hindenburg Line, and there were no further significant engagements in the Somme sector until the Germans mounted their major offensive in March 1918. The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916. The memorial also serves as an Anglo-French Battle Memorial in recognition of the joint nature of the 1916 offensive and a small cemetery containing equal numbers of Commonwealth and French graves lies at the foot of the memorial. The memorial, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, was built between 1928 and 1932 and unveiled by the Prince of Wales, in the presence of the President of France, on 31 July 1932. The dead of other Commonwealth countries who died on the Somme and have no known graves are commemorated on national memorials elsewhere.

No. of Identified Casualties: 72115

Please remember that the information on this website is only accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief. If any of the information is relevant to your own research, please double-check the sources.