George Critchley was a casualty of the final allied offensive in 1918

 Corporal George Critchley. The picture on the left was taken after he enrolled for the Prince of Wales Own Civil Service Rifles. In the picture on the right, Sergeant George Critchley is wearing his glasses and his cap badge is that of the Australian School of Musketry.

   George wrote a postcard on 26th July 1916, from Hayling Island:

    "This is our little squad. The battalions represented are: Kings Own Lancaster, Somerset, from Devon, Worcester, Hants, Berks, Devon, Cyclist, London & Gloster. Some mixture. Thanks ever so much for the tobacco you sent me. I hope to be at Tom's next weekend when we finish here on Thursday night. Look out for some Good news from France. We've heard something. Hospital ships have been passing here from Southampton continually too" 

   I will put the postcard picture, in which George appears to have a Prince of Wales Own Civil Service Rifles cap badge, below, with George's message, which was on the back of the picture.

    At the beginning of WW1, the commanding officer of George's regiment Lt Colonel R G Hayes refused to serve overseas and so did many of the men in his battalion. Also, like Rudyard Kipling's son John, George had poor eyesight. This can be seen in the boyhood pictures I have of him; he is usually screwing up his eyes. George's poor eyesight was also noted by Mollie and her mother

    My guess is that neither George, nor his family expected him to be sent to the front on account of the policy of his regiment and his vision impairment. From accounts of the Battle of Amiens, Chipilly Ridge and Gressaire Wood, my guess is that George died on the ridge or in the wood.  I heard from my grandparents that by 1918, there had been so many British casualties in the Great War, including George's brother William,  that for the final allied offensive, George was among the reservists and territorials who were hastily posted.

   Amiens may have been the beginning of the end, but allied casualties were high, more than 19,000 killed or wounded. George was in the 58th division of the 4th British Army which was deployed "hastily" necessitating an overnight march of nearly 30 kilometres. The intention was to continue the attack on Chipilly Ridge and Gressaire Wood, but there was "considerable confusion" according to accounts. There were tanks deployed in the offensive, some were "whippets".  The Royal Flying Corps (formed a few months earlier) were expected to join the attack from the air, but the foggy weather inhibited this tactic. The allies included, Australians, Canadians, British, French and Americans. In the confusion there were  'friendly fire' errors and poison gas spoiled the British rations before they could be distributed. By 9th August the British, Canadian and Australian infantry had outrun the supporting artillery.  It was not until August 11th that the Canadian commander, Arthur Currie, urged common sense. He persuaded the allied commanders to fall back and consolidate the gains they had made.  But it was too late for George.

    What angered George's close and loving family, apart from the fact that he was never found, was the short factual letter from the war office to James and Ellen Critchley announcing his death. George's grieving parents were later sent a poor quality photograph of the Vis en Artois memorial on which George's name is barely readable near the top. These last weeks of the Great War had a terrible death toll among all nationalities. There was another nationality involved in the action. The British had recruited and shipped Chinese labourers to the Somme. They were mainly employed on logistics, but for a couple of years after the war, they continued the grim task of finding the remains of the dead in the killings fields. I managed to find a picture of the memorial to George's battalion at Amiens: "The 58th" My guess is that the English flag on the nearby building was put there intentionally. It will be below George's postcard.

Mystery solved: George 's posting to the front explains his rank

 Here is a picture of Corporal George Critchley in his World War 1 uniform with a single corporal's stripe on the sleeve of his left arm. The badge on his cap is from the Prince of Wales Own Civil Service Regiment. A chance meeting of a friend and colleague today answered the question of how George came to serve most of WW1 in the capacity of a sergeant training Australian soldiers to use rifles. My friend is a retired lieutenant colonel and also retired Blue Badge tourist guide. I asked him if he knew why George had served most of the war in the capacity of a sergeant, but went to the front in Amiens in 1918 as a corporal. After I explained that George had joined the Prince of Wales Own Regiment as a corporal, spent years based in London as a sergeant, but was sent to front as a corporal, he said: "The same thing happened to me. I was promoted to Staff Sergeant, but when I was posted abroad my rank reverted to Sergeant. Promotions happen where there is a need, but when you are posted, you make the move in your former rank."

  Below is a picture of George with his Sergeant's stripes with an Australian School of Musketry cap badge.

 I already have remarked on the appalling loss of life at Amiens. George died on 9th August 1918, probably the victim of an explosion, although I haven't yet researched this. He wasn't reported "missing feared dead", there must have been witnesses, as his parents were informed he had been killed in action.

Critchley and Smith, bakers of St Helens

 I can begin this posting about those Critchleys of St Helens, with my own memory of a visit. I was about the same age as the young man on the horse, who may be my grandfather, Tom Critchley. By the time of Mollie's reminiscences and my visit Critchley & Smith, Wholesale & Retail, Bakers & c. St Helens had a motor van for deliveries. I estimate the young man in the picture to be about four or five. Holding the horse is probably young Tom Critchley's uncle by marriage "Bread Uncle Jim" Smith.

Mum. dad, my sister and I visited St Helens after a long car journey and having to ask directions in Billinge. Dad never tired of imitating the accent of the local man who eventually understood his southern accent and answered: "Eee, ahh dorn't knorw... usk Ted ee 't shed." It was our first taste of the local vernacular. During our visit, I was to receive instruction from my great uncle Seth on the accent and language. To ensure the lessons were fully understood, he sketched cartoons and wrote little ditties under them. My favourite was "who powed thee?" I cherished these sketches and ditties so much, I still have them and will put them in later posts.

My sister at that time had a dolls house which had been made by grandpa, Tom Critchley and he and dad made a lot of the furniture for it. Whilst we visiting the Critchleys at St Helens we were helped to make "food" for the dolls house out of flour and water paste and plates and bowls out of papier maché. When they were dry we painted them. I particularly remember making "cottage" loaves, which were the easiest.

Two other memories stand out. Our trip to the Critchleys favourite resort, Southport, and walking through the streets of Liverpool holding my dad's hand. In 2015 after a wet walk through Liverpool, under dark clouds and pouring rain, I wrote:

"As a small child, with my Dad and an uncle from St Helens I remember walking along a building which seemed to have such a huge pediment, it was well above my height.  I could not see any windows in it and it seemed to me at the time and in my memory of it to just be a huge stone building. What was it? It was not one of the "Three Graces" along the waterfront I walked round all of those. Walking back from the re-developed warehouses and docks for my tour to Port sunlight, I found my building. It was tucked behind one of the Three Graces. It was tall, built in the Art Deco style. I walked round it and found statue niches, a door, but few windows. But what was it? I would find out from the guide on my tour to Port Sunlight who gave me the answer to the question which had been puzzling me for years. The building housed the ventilation shaft for the Mersey Tunnel and was built in the 1930s in the Art Deco style."

And now to Mollie's account of the Critchley & Smith bakery.

   "My grandfather, along with a certain James Smith (known as Bread Uncle Jim), had owned and run a bakery business in Crowther Street. He did the baking and Uncle Jim did the delivering with horse and 'van' taking bread and buns to houses as well as shops. Uncle Jim married my grandmother's sister Auntie Lizzie, but she died before my time. James Critchley (Grannies Uncle Jim) never married. He was in charge of the bakery business when his father died. When Bread Uncle Jim's wife, Auntie Lizzie, was alive, they took Auntie Pe (Phoebe) on at least one holiday to Scotland. One one occasion, in Glencoe, when they came to a steep slope, they all had to get off the wagonette and walk, to allow the horses to get up with a lighter load. After Auntie Lizzie died Uncle Jim was invited to family occasions. After all he had been my grandfather's partner. He invariably brought a present of a box of chocolates, but unfortunately these were usually inedible as he had obviously hoarded them too long. At one time a curate from St Lukes and his wife and baby lodged with him in Horace Street."

Mollie's memories of the Critchleys and Mellings of Billinge and St Helens

This print is from a Dufay colour slide taken about 1938 by Tom Critchley. The picture shows Tom's wife, Annie (left), his sister Mary, his niece Mollie Platt and his brother in law, Harry Platt.

Mollie writes: 

    "My grandfather, along with a certain James Smith  (known as Bread Uncle Jim), had owned and run a bakery business in Crowther Street, St Helens. Grandfather did the baking and Bread Uncle Jim did the delivering with horse and 'van', taking bread and buns to houses as well as shops. Uncle Jim had married my grandmother's sister, Auntie Lizzie, but I never knew her, she died before my time."

    Another great aunt Mollie remembers was "Auntie Gaunt". Mollie writes:

    Down the road in Bleak Hill lived Auntie Gaunt, my grandmother's sister. Her name was really Phoebe. She married a man called Jack Gaunt, who tended to spend much of his time in pubs. I remember her rather sad sense of humour. She'd had a trying life and had saved secretly what she could and always kept her savings book hidden so her husband could not find it and spend her money. They kept hens and ducks and, at one time a terrible Alsatian dog, which was chained up. When I was about five, it clawed my face after I had fed it. I remember the blood pouring down my face and I still have the faint scars. Auntie Gaunt died before her husband and he married again, not very happily.

    Mollie also writes about "funny" Auntie Nan:

   "She was a real character, game for anything, and, I imagine, probably quite a success with the boys when she was young. She had married a certain Jack Gleeson and she used to visit from time to time accompanied by one of her quiet respectable daughters. By the time I knew her, she was extremely deaf and you had to shout at her. She in turn would shout back and I found her rather frightening.

    "Blackberry Mary was my grandmother's cousin. She used to walk from Billinge and bring blackberries in the autumn. Her daughter and son in law had a pub called "The Labour in Vain". The pub was pulled down some years ago. I never met the lady, but she ceased to visit after the move to Bleak Hill. Perhaps they never let her know where the family had gone.

   "However, there were other Billinge connections, and there is a story about the day a donkey fell down the dell. "I shooed and me mother pooed" and they got it out in the end. My grandmother's maiden name was Melling and there are lots buried in the cemetery there of that name. May Melling, who lived in Bleak Hill, (married name Lawrence) was some relation. Her sister Nellie kept a sort of corner shop, long since pulled down, near Liverpool Road. The Willecks who lived in Rivington Road were relations too. I fancy she may have been another of my grandmother's sisters. At any rate, her son was a sort of cousin and friendly with Seth Critchley, the youngest of the Critchley boys.

   "Then there were the neighbours in Bleak Hill. In the adjoining semi lived Mr and Mrs Henshall. He had a haulage business in Prescot. With them lived Mrs Henshall's sister Mrs Cox and her husband, who often seemed to be out of work. Neither couple had any children. They kept a parrot, which escaped outside one day and bit Mrs Cox badly. The parrot then took a fancy to my bare feet. They shouted at me not to move, and, to my relief, managed to recapture the bird. I've hated parrots ever since.

   The women were forever going into Liverpool buying clothes and spending money. They would soon tire of whatever they had bought and would either give it away or resell it for very little. Both my aunt and my mother took advantage of this service, especially as the goods were always of a very high quality. The women were very generous and the buttercup tea set in the corner of my dining room is one of their gifts to me.

Great Grannies... Melling and Critchley

  Mollie never met her great grandma, but she wrote about her family. She stayed with her grandma, whose mother may be pictured above. This would be Great Granny Melling nee Wright. The picture was probably taken in the greenhouse in Knowsley Road. Possibly on the same occasion as the photograph of my grandfather was taken. Grandpa, Tom Critchley, appears to be a teenager in the photograph of him in the greenhouse. That would mean the photograph was taken in 1905 or thereabouts. It has been taken from the opposite side of the greenhouse as the light source is from a different direction and the higher shelf of plant pots is to Great Granny Melling's right.

   Mollie's Critchley great grandmother, Margaret Critchley, later Webb, died in 1901 according to records.

    There is a picture of her below. I have identified the subject of the picture below as "Granny Webb" Having studied pictures of the Critchley children I can see a resemblance to particularly George in this picture of "Granny Webb."

This picture is likely to be Margaret Critchley, who remarried after her husband James Critchley died and was known to Mollie's mother Mary as "Granny Webb."

What happened to Sergeant George Critchley at Amiens?

 

Great uncle George Critchley, above, was a sergeant in the Prince of Wales Own Regiment of Civil Service Rifles. There is no dispute about that in family records and the plethora of pictures I have of him in uniform with his sergeant's stripes and the regimental badge on his cap. Based in London, he spent most of the first world war training Australian troops.

    I have a postcard from George sent from France to his brother, my grandfather. It was written shortly after their brother William was killed in Action on 6th May 1916. It is doubtful George knew about his brother's death,when he wrote that card. He is optimistic: "look for some good news from France," he wrote cheerfully.

    The mystery is what happened to George at the beginning of the Battle of Amiens 8th to 9th August 1918. This was a pivotal allied advance which included British, Australian, Canadian, French and American battalions.

    The British reinforcements were transferred from the home army in Britain. They joined Australian and Canadian infantry for the first phase of the Battle of Amiens. The seventh division, made up from the British 18th Eastern and 58th (1st and 2nd London) Australian 2nd and 3rd and Canadian 1st, 2nd and 3rd were supported by the 33rd division of the US Army National Guard.

    There was a fog on 8th August when Australian and Canadian troops surprised and captured some German troops who were having breakfast. By the end of that day, the allies had broken ten miles into the enemy lines. Chipilly Ridge was captured by the allies assisted by the American "dough boys" from the 33rd U.S. Infantry Division. The American officers led their men from the front. This method of operation had resulted in so many casualties among their officers that the action at Chipilly Ridge was led by Jake Allex. He was from Kosovo, a relatively recent Serbian immigrant to the U.S. who survived the action at Amiens to receive a medal of honour for his gallantry when he returned home.

   The initial attack was led by the British 4th Army. Allied losses were more than 6,500, killed, wounded and missing. The 4th Army were commanded by Sir Henry Rawlingson. The lll Corps, which included George's London division (58th) was commanded by Lieutenant-General Richard Butler, who suffered a nervous collapse and was withdrawn from the action by Rawlingson.

   We don't know why George was listed as a corporal when he was one of the early casualties of the Battle of Amiens. He died at Crisp-A-Croke north of the Somme. He was one of the British reinforcements who were transferred from the home army in Britain. Out of 7,000 men who served with the Prince of Wales Own Civil Service Rifles, 1,240 (18%) officers and men were killed.

   We know George was killed in action according to index number M.R.16 Vis-en-Artois memorial. It reads:

"Critchley Corporal George 531439. Ist Battalion Prince of Wales Own Regiment Civil Service Rifles, posted to 2nd/12th Battalion London Regiment, The Rangers, Killed August 9th August aged 23, son of James and Mary Ellen Critchley of 149A Knowsley Road, St Helen's Lancashire."

   This and his name listed on the Vis-en-Artois memorial are the only memorials for George except for a listing on the family memorial in St Helen's which reads : "There is no war grave for him. He was one of more than 8,000 casualties of the 8th/9th August 2018.

   The one picture I have of George with corporal's stripes is of a younger man, perhaps taken when he first enlisted into the army, four years previously. Before he enlisted, George had been working as a clerk at Pilkingtons.

    George had served most of the war as a sergeant, training Australians in London but he died as a corporal. £30.8s and 4d was sent to his parents.

   So far my research has revealed nothing which might have demoted him from sergeant to corporal. Maybe he needed to have the rank of sergeant in his capacity training Australian troops in artillery. My grandparents, Tom and Annie Critchley told me they saw a lot of George and his girlfriend in London. Did he perhaps arrive late back to the barracks after one visit to my grandparents and was demoted for it? It's not something they mentioned. All I remember being told by my grandparents was that so many British troops had been killed or injured in WWl by August 1918, that all possible men, reservists and new recruits were hurried off to the front as quickly as possible. I had the impression from them he didn't even have a chance to see them to say goodbye or to see his family in St Helens before he went.

    Two Critchley brothers were killed in action in WW1. They were all spoken of by my grandparents, Mollie and Auntie Mary with affection, particularly George, because they saw so much of him and his girlfriend. Another brother Jim Critchley was posted to India and returned. Mollie records that he talked about his experiences a lot and the family got tired of his stories and told him to shut up. I have pictures of Jim Critchley on his motorbike. He was a legend on it, so much so that he was reputed to take his frequent trips to the Isle of Man entirely by bike! Perhaps that's how my father came to hero-worship his uncle Jim when he was a small boy.