William McHugh was born in Liverpool on 14th December 1896, the first born child of George McHugh and his wife Mary (née Ward). His parents, both from Liverpool, married in 1895 and had eight children, four of whom sadly died in infancy. William was the only surviving son; he had younger sisters Mary, born in 1901, Margaret 1906, and Catherine 1908. William was baptised on 18th December in St. Joseph’s, Liverpool, his parents living in court housing in Birkett Street.
In 1901 they live in court housing in Burlington Street. His father, 28, is a Corporation (illegible) labourer/road layer(?) His mother is 26, William is 4. Also in the household is his widowed grandmother, Margaret Ward, 60, born in Ireland, assisting in the home, and his aunt, Catherine Ward, 34, a cotton sorter. Based on addresses in the children’s baptism records, the family lived in Victoria Square in 1903 and in Rose Place in 1905.
In 1911 his parents, with four children, are at 5 Court, 4 House Gascoyne Street, Liverpool. His father is a dock labourer, William is 14, at school, Mary is 9, Margaret 5, and Catherine is 3. Also in the household are his married uncle James McHugh, his wife and two children.
As his service record has not survived, the details are not known. William enlisted in Liverpool as Private 13516, 14th Bn, King’s (Liverpool) Regiment. He would have been 17 years old at the outbreak of war. The 14th Bn was raised at Seaforth in October 1914, part of Kitchener’s New Army, and trained at Eastbourne and Seaford. The battalion landed in France at Boulogne in September 1915, (his medal card shows that William arrived in France on 4th September 1915, when he was 18), moved to Marseilles by train and shipped to Salonika in October. The battalion fought at the Battles of Horseshoe Hill and Machukovo in 1916 and at Doiran in 1917. They returned to France in June 1918.
It is likely that William transferred to the 18th Bn when it absorbed the 14th Bn in August 1918 and became the 18th (Lancashire Hussars) King’s Liverpool Regiment. The 100 Days Offensive began on 8th August, the Allied offensive which would end the war.
On 7th October 1918 the 18th Bn arrives at the Hindenberg Line at Bony. From the battalion War Diary:
9th October 1918 - At 5:20 a.m. the battalion moved forward from Serain to Maretz… No opposition was encountered until arrival at about L’Epinette when the enemy M.G’s opened out down the valley.. . Eventually an armoured car proceeded along the road on the right flank, and dispersed the crews… Companies were then ordered to close on the centre of their line at 1145 and proceeded forward, taking up a position in P.31.c. In the engagement 3 Officers and 31 O.R. were wounded, and 6 O.R. killed.
Pte 13516 William McHugh was one of those killed in action on 09th October. He was 21 years old.
His body was never recovered from the battlefield, or was subsequently lost. He is remembered on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial, Pas de Calais.
The Vis en Artois Memorial bears the names of over 9,000 men who fell in the period from 8 August 1918 to the date of the Armistice in the Advance to Victory in Picardy and Artois, between the Somme and Loos, and who have no known grave.
The memorial was designed by J.R. Truelove, with sculpture by Ernest Gillick. It was unveiled by the Rt. Hon. Thomas Shaw on 4 August 1930.
William was listed as Killed in the Weekly Casualty List 26th November 1918, after the war had ended.
William earned his three medals. His parents, living at 2 Back Strickland Street, received his effects, including a War Gratuity of £19, and a pension of 5/- a week. His mother died in 1952 aged 77, and his father, living at 299 Danewood Road, Speke, lived to the age of 85 and died in 1957.
William is commemorated on the Liverpool Hall of Remembrance, Panel 25 (14th Bn)
We currently have no further information on William McHugh. If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.
