Pte 21547 Peter Kehoe

In 1901 the family is living at 6 Clegg Street, off Great Howard Street, with six children. His father is 40, a dock labourer, his mother is 39, Peter is listed as 7 years old (he would have been 6). Also two uncles, William and Joseph Kehoe.

 

His mother appears to have died in 1905.

 

The family are still at 6 Clegg Street in 1911, with seven children at home. His father, 50, is a marine fireman, but out of work, Joseph, 23, is a dock labourer, Rose, 22, has no occupation, James, 20, and Peter, 16, are labourers for an ale bottler, Francis, 14, works in a barber shop, and Catherine, 12, and Elizabeth, 9, are at school.  Also in the household is his uncle Joseph Kehoe, 43.  

 

He enlisted in Liverpool on 13th September 1914, as Private 21547,  joining the 19th (Pals) Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment. All his military records show this service number, but the number on his attestation page is 18148.  No other records are found under this number. On enlistment he gave his age as 19 years and 11 months, and his occupation as printer case maker.  He was described as being 5’ 5” tall, weighing 126 lbs, with a fresh complexion, grey eyes and dark brown hair.  He has two scars on his inside right leg.  He gives his father James, 6 Clegg Street, as next of kin. 

His service record survives and shows - 

 

Whilst training at Belton Park on 15th August 1915 he was late on parade and received three days confined to barracks.

On 08th Novemebr 1915 he was posted 22nd (Reserve) Battalion King's.Liverpool.Regiment. This was the day after the four Liverpool Pals Battalions had embarked for
France.

On 06th January 1916 Peter arrived in France and posted to 20th Battalion King's.Liverpool.Regiment.

31/01/1916 joined 20th Bn in the field from 30th I.B.D.

 

07/02/1917 attached 3rd Army school

16/3/1917 rejoined unit

 

On the opening day of the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele), 31st July 1917, he was wounded in action with a wound to the neck. After treatment at 12th and 10th Casualty Clearing Stations, he was transferred to a Convalescent Depot at Boulogne, and rejoined his battalion in the field on 28th August 1917.

 

17/01/1918 to 5th Army course

22/01/1918 rejoined battalion in the field, by which time the Pals battalions have moved south.

 

07/02/1918 posted to 19th Battalion when 20th Battalion disbanded in France.  

On 21st February 1918 the brigade moved into the line opposite St. Quentin. 

 

On 21st March 1918 the German Spring Offensive “Operation Michael” begins.  The 19th battalion moves to Vaux and moves forward to prepare to counter attack at Roupy the next day.  German records, held by the International Red Cross, show that Peter suffered a penetrating shot to the pelvis and was captured by the Germans. he was posted as Missing on 21st March 1918 during St Quentin, he was then declared a Prisoner of War in Germany (ICRC records). He was held in a military hospital in Hautmont, 45-50 miles northeast of the front. Peter must have suffered in the weeks before he died of his wounds, aged 23, on 04th June 1918.

He was originally buried in grave 281, Hautmont Cemetery (3 miles sw of Maubeuge). He now rests at Hautmont Communal Cemetery, where his headstone bears the epitaph:.

“DEEP IN OUR HEARTS FIRM AND FAST GIVE GOLDEN MEMORIES OF THE PAST” 

Hautmont was captured by the Germans in the early days of the First World War, and it remained in their hands until retaken by the 42nd (East Lancashire) Division on 8 November 1918. The communal cemetery was used by the German troops for the burial of their dead, and the Allied prisoners who died in the local German hospitals were buried there by the authorities of the town. A war plot was formed outside the south-east part of the cemetery, which was later extended to enclose it. The Commonwealth graves are in two groups: in the south-west part of the cemetery are graves of 1918 and of 1914, and in the south-east part are those soldiers who died after the recapture of the town. Hautmont Communal Cemetery contains 246 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the First World War. Seven of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to three casualties believed to be buried among them. The cemetery also contains 55 French, 100 Russian and 1 Belgian burial. 

His family was notified of the place, cause, and date of death and place of burial in January 1919. 

Less than three weeks after Peter was captured, his brother James, Rifleman 305948, 1st/5th K.L.R. was captured at Festubert on 9th April 1918.  He died of dysentery on 18th August 1918.  He was 27.  

He now rests in Lille Southern Cemetery, where his headstone reads the same as his brother's:
  

“DEEP IN OUR HEARTS FIRM AND FAST LIVE GOLDEN MEMORIES OF THE PAST”

Lille was occupied by the Germans from the 27th August, to the 5th September 1914, and again on the 12th October; and it remained in their hands, undamaged by Allied artillery, until the 17th October 1918.

Southern Cemetery was used by the Germans during the greater part of the War, and after the Armistice by the 39th Stationary Hospital and the 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station.

During the 1939-45 War, at the end of March 1940, the 50th Division was near Lille; while in May the same year No.10 Casualty Clearing Station used the Cemetery from the 16th to the 25th of the month.

There are now over 600, 1914-18 and nearly 300, 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, a small number from the 1914-18 War are unidentified and a special memorial is erected to one soldier from the United Kingdom known to be buried among them. From the 1939-45 War nearly 40 are unidentified.

The French number of Plot I is V.2; that of Plot II, V.4; and that of Plot III (where British prisoners of War are buried) J.1. The Second War graves are in french Plot 82.

 

In 1919 his father provided information on Peter’s living relatives;  Joseph, 31, Rose 27, Catherine, 20, and Elizabeth, 17, are at home.  Mrs. (illegible, presumably his sister Mary Alice), 33, lives at 8 Kent Place.  Pte. Frank Kehoe, 22, is with Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in France.

 

His sister Rose living at 6 Clegg Street, received Peter’s Army effects, including a War Gratuity of £21-10s.

In October 1920 she signed for his personal effects: 1 disc.