2nd Lieut Harold Crispin Hick

• Age: 33
• From: New Ferry, Cheshire
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• K.I.A Wednesday 12th July 1916
• Commemorated at: Peronne Rd Cem Maricourt
  Panel Ref: I.B.1

Harold Crispin Hick was born at New Ferry, Wirral on the 24th February 1883, and was baptised on the 06th April 1883 at Bebington. He was the son of George Hawson Hick and his first wife Mary Helen (nee Ramsden), both from Yorkshire, who married in 1876. His father was a ship's store dealer. Harold had a sister, Agnes, and a brother, Pantland. 

On the 1891 Census the family are living at 29 Highfield South, Rock Ferry. His father, George Hawson, is aged 41, and is a ships stores dealer born in Scarborough, his mother Mary Helen is 37years of age and was born in Bradford. They have two children in the household; Harold C. 8 a scholar born in Rock Ferry and Agnes aged 4 also born in Rock Ferry. Also declared is Mary's widowed mother Martha E. Ramsden 60 born in Bradford. They also have a nurse, cook and housemaid.

The 1901 Census shows the family living at 3 Victoria Drive, Birkenhead with parents, Harold is aged 18 and a provision merchant apprentice and brother Pantland age 19 a medical student. 

Harold was married twice, firstly to Magdalene Harrisson at Birkenhead in 1906. He was admitted to the Institute of Engineers on the 27th March 1906 whilst working for the Atlantic, Quebec and Western Railway, Paspebiac, P.Q., Quebec. His daughter Margaret Helen was born shortly after their arrival in Canada on 29th December 1906, she was baptised on the 31st March 1907. Another passenger record exists for the family dated 12th March 1908 aboard the SS Dominion sailing from Liverpool for Quebec. They appear on the Candian 1911 census in Quebec - Harold C. Hick 28, Magdalene Hick 29, daughter Margaret 4. A son John Harnett was born on 23rd Aug 1911, he was baptised on 24th Sept 1911 in Jonquiere. 

A probate record reveals the death of his wife in 1913: 

HICK - Magdalen of the Jonquiere Pulp Company, Quebec, Canada (wife of Harold Crispin Hick), died 14th January 1913. Probate London 27th June to Pantland Hick physician. Effects £62 5s 4d.

After the death of his wife he returned his two children to Liverpool on 21st April 1913 aboard the Arabic. John Hick aged 1 and Margaret Hick aged 6 were accompanied by a nurse Rachael Munro.

When war broke out he was in Brazil. He returned to England aboard the Arlanza from Buenos Aires, Argentina, arriving at Southampton on the 22nd August 1914. He was a widower. 

He was living at Londonthorpe, Lincolnshire when he married Lilian Oldfield on the 03rd June 1915 at St Michael's Church, Pimlico, both of 59 Eaton Terrace, Liverpool. The notes on the certificate state he was at Belton Park Camp. 

His brother, Pantland, died of fever aged 33, whilst working as a doctor at the the 1st Western General Hospital, Fazakerley on the 17th April 1915. His death was reported in an article in the British Medical Journal on 08th May 1915  - 

THE LATE DR. PANTLAND HICK. -

A friend writes:- "Life is short, and the Art long. . . . ." Man must strive to achieve, even though they live not to see the fruits of their endeavours and achievements. Thus did Hippocrates, in his wisdom, inscribe the epitaph of the many physicians, cut off in the vigour of youth, who were to follow him with devotion and faith through the long ages. Pantland Hick was one of them. He was absorbed in his work; he spared neither his energies nor his health. Indeed, he died serving his country with the same unselfishness that he lavished on his friends and patients in their hours of need. In these times memory is short and hopes are high. Men whose deaths would cause a stir in ordinary times pass almost unnoticed. But to those who knew him Hick will always be a living memory - the memory of a physician whose powers of observation and whose frank and noble disposition would have placed him among the great physicians of the country, had he been spared to accomplish in his own modest but unswerving way that to which he had set his hand.

Harold obtained a commission in the 19th Battalion (Pals) of The King's Liverpool Regiment. He joined the Battalion for duty on 15^th March 1916 when it was in tented accommodation at Bois Des Tallies on the southern part of the Somme sector of northern France.

It is assumed that he took part In the early fighting on the Somme, before he met his death in action. On the day of his death, 12^th July 1916,the Battalion was in the trenches near Maricourt, in the Old German front line trench that was captured in the action on 1^st July 1916. Throughout the whole day the position was heavily shelled by German artillery, particularly when being relieved by the East Surrey’s, when some three hundred 15cm shells hit the trenches and surrounding roads. The Battalion War Diary does state, however, that despite the intensity of the fire, Casualties were very small, ‘only two men being shaken’.

It is possible that Second-Lieutenant Hick was killed during this shelling, and his death was not recorded at the time, or perhaps he was attached to another unit in the field. It is entirely probable that he was involved during the fighting that took place on  12th July 1916 during the fighting at Trones Wood. The murderous fighting that went on inside Trones Wood rendered it impossible to put specific dates on some of the casualties. The conditions are best described in the following passage from Everard Wyrall’s book The History of The King’s Regiment (Liverpool) Volume II. 

The remembrance of Trones Wood in July 1916 to those who passed through it is of a noisome, horrible place, of a tangled mass of trees and undergrowth which had been tossed and flung about in frightful confusion by the shells of both sides. Of the ghastly dead which lay about in all directions, and of DEATH, lurking in every hole and corner with greedy hands ready to snatch the lives of the unwary. The place was a Death trap, and although the attacks were made with great determination,   the presence of snipers who could not be detected and often fired into the backs of our men made the clearing of the wood impossible.

Harold now rests at Plot L, Row B, Grave 1 in Perrone Road Cemetery. The Cemetery Register does not contain any personal information or family information about him. His headstone does not bear any personal inscription, although it quite clearly does identify him with the 19^th Battalion The King’s Liverpool Regiment. He was 33 years of age when he was killed. 

Maricourt was, at the beginning of the Battles of the Somme 1916, the point of junction of the British and French forces, and within a very short distance of the front line; it was lost in the German advance of March 1918, and recaptured at the end of the following August.

The Cemetery, originally known as Maricourt Military Cemetery No.3, was begun by fighting units and Field Ambulances in the Battles of the Somme 1916, and used until August 1917; a few graves were added later in the War, and at the Armistice it consisted of 175 graves which now form almost the whole of Plot I. It was completed after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from the battlefields in the immediate neighbourhood and from certain smaller burial grounds.

There are now 1348, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, 366 are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 26 soldiers from the United Kingdom known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of three soldiers from the United Kingdom, buried in other cemeteries, whose graves could not be found.

The cemetery covers an area of 3,787 square metres and is enclosed on three sides by a low red brick wall.

His family placed notices in the Liverpool Echo on 20^th July 1916: 

“July 11, killed in action, Harold Crispin Hick (Second-Lieut. Liverpool Regiment), dearly-loved husband of Lilian Hick.”

“July 11, killed in action, Harold Crispin Hick (Second-Lieut. Liverpool Regiment), youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Hick, 11 Catherine Street. (Canadian papers please copy.)”

Harold's medal card gives his widow's address as c/o Miss M Oldfield of Derby House, Buxton, Derbyshire.

Probate of his estate was obtained at London on the 11th November 1916 by his father and by Herbert Pickford Hollingdrake, mill furnisher. His home address was 11 Catherine Street, Liverpool and his effects were valued at £1,273 15s 10d. 

On the 1921 Census his children are being brought up by the grandparents George and Mary Hick at 17 Brompton Road, Sefton Park.

His father died at Falmouth, Cornwall in 1921 and his mother died at 17b Brompton Avenue, Sefton Park in 1923.

His sister, Agnes Hick, left Falmouth in 1929 aboard the British Premier travelling to Abadan, Iran. She married in Iraq the following year.

His son John Harnett died in Southsea, Portsmouth on 30th December 1980 (probate).

There are no UK marriage or death records for daughter Margaret Helen, perhaps she joined Agnes in the Middle East. 

Both Harold and Pantland are commemorated on the family headstone in Deane Road and Manor Road Cemetery, Scarborough which reads:

In memory of MARY/the beloved wife of/PANTLAND HICK/a loving and affectionate/wife and mother and a/true friend/born September 28 1810/died January 25 1881/also of the above PANTLAND HICK/born June 23 1803/who after a long and useful life entered into rest/April 25 1887/in loving memory of/ELIZABETH HICK/daughter of the above/who entered into rest 5th Jan 1917/aged 76/in loving memory of/Captn PANTLAND HICK RAMC/who died of fever April 1915/and of/Lieut HAROLD CRISPIN HICK/King’s Liverpools/killed in action July 1916/each aged 33 years/grandsons of PANTLAND HICK Senior.  

We currently have no further information on Harold Crispin Hick. If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.