32881 Sgt Maurice Alvey Pinder, 17th (1st City Bn) King's Liverpool Regiment.


Maurice Pinder was born in Birkenhead on December 12th 1893, the son of a Salt Merchant, Ernest Pinder, who originally came from Guiseley in Yorkshire.

A trainee accountant with Hodson, Ward and Morris, having heard Lord Derby make his address to the business sector of Liverpool, Maurice enlisted in the 1st “Pals” battalion of the KLR on the 31st of August 1914 at St George’s Hall.

Posted to the 17th KLR, he and his comrades were initially billeted in the old Watch Factory in Prescot. Over the next few months, the battalion was gradually issued with uniforms, equipment and finally, SMLE rifles.

In April 1915 the City battalions with sent to Grantham to be formed as 89th Brigade, in 30th Division, a formation that most of them would belong to for the Duration. After a move to Larkhill on Salisbury Plain, for manoeuvres which did not always go according to plan, the Brigade was deemed well-trained enough to be sent to the BEF. On the 7th of November 1915 they embarked at Folkestone for Boulogne and within a fortnight were in the front line in the south of the Somme sector.

For the next six months the brigade rotated from line to reserve to rest, gaining experience and some casualties. When the pre-attack barrage began, the 17th was badly affected by German counter-fire on the 26th of June.

When the Somme offensive started on the morning of the 1st of July, the 17th was arguably one of the most successful battalions involved. All the objectives were taken in good time with relatively few casualties. As the right-hand battalion of the whole assault, they had profited from the action of the neighbouring French artillery fire on the British objectives.

The Somme Offensive ground on for months with enormous casualty lists, and the 89th Brigade was continuously employed in the Southern part of the battlefield.

On October 12th the Brigade was involved in the Battle of the Transloy Ridges, with the 17th leading the attack northwards of Longueval and Flers. They ran into trouble almost immediately, suffering not only from heavy German shelling but also from the effects of our own supporting Artillery firing short, in effect shelling our own troops. Thanks to this combined with very heavy machine-gun fire the attack was not a successful one and Maurice was badly injured in the back by this shellfire. When the attack had petered out, he was carried back by stretcher to the Regimental First-Aid post, and thence to a Casualty Clearing Station in Dernancourt. After stabilisation he was evacuated to a military hospital in the UK, and thence to the Ropner Convalescent Hospital at Middleton St George in County Durham.

When he came to exchange his blue hospital uniform for khaki again, it seems Maurice was temporarily posted to the 18th Battalion KLR as he appears to have been involved in the Battle of Arras in April and May. He was certainly on a course in Penally Training Camp near Tenby, South Wales in July and we think, after Draft Leave, sent to the 2/5th KLR, a Territorial Battalion, for the second half of 1917 and may have been involved in the Second battle of Ypres.

When this unit was dissolved, he was posted on the 1st of February 1918 to the 2/6th Liverpool Rifles in the Armentieres area, one of a draft of 7 officers and 180 other ranks. With this unit he served throughout the Kaiser’s March offensive and the subsequent “fire and movement” period leading up to the liberation of Lille and the crossing of the river Scheldt in the weeks before the Armistice.

The battalion moved from Lille to Arras at the cessation of hostilities, and Maurice, as a Staff Sergeant, was involved in a “re-education“ scheme to prepare the men for their return to civilian life. He was demobilised in May 1919.

The other members of Maurice’s family were also active during the Great War.

His youngest brother, Spr 446920 Ronald Garth Pinder died of wounds near Ypres on the 10th of September 1917.

His younger brother Percy Millard Pinder had emigrated to the USA before the War, but returned in the US Corps of Engineers.

Maurice's father, Ernest Pinder had been in the Yorkshire Hussars Yeomanry in his youth, and as an “Old Soldier”, during WW1 enrolled in the Cheshire Volunteer Training Corps, helping to assimilate new recruits and conscripts into the armed forces.

Maurice joined the family business in Birkenhead, was a Special Constable during the General Strike and was married in 1928.

In WW2 he continued to serve, both in the Home Guard and as a Warden with the ARP in Birkenhead. Maurice passed away on the 28th of December 1959 at the age of 68.