Jack Lloyd was a native of Great Meols. His mother, Eleanor Annie Barlow (1858-1933), was from Hoylake. Her ancestors were living in the Hoylake area as far back as the eighteenth century; his father, George Thomas Lloyd (1857-1935), was a labourer from Birkenhead. The couple married in Liverpool in 1888 and lived in Birkenhead until about 1884, when they moved to Great Meols. Our soldier, Jack Lloyd, was born during the January quarter of 1895. He was the penultimate of eight children – five girls and three boys. In 1911 the family was living in a six-roomed house at 1 North Terrace in Meols. George was working as a farm labourer and Eleanor as a caretaker at the Meols Church of England Elementary School. Jack was aged sixteen and employed as baker’s assistant.
Jack’s service records do not exist, but the ‘Deeside Advertiser’ of 22nd October 1915, from which the above portrait was taken, claimed that he had joined 1/4/Cheshire Regiment just before the outbreak of war. As a young, working-class lad, he was a typical member of that particular battalion – Wirral’s main territorial unit, which was known as the ‘Greys’ and whose headquarters were in Birkenhead. Middle-class local young men, interested in part-time military service, tended either to join the 1/10/King’s (Liverpool Regiment), otherwise known as the ‘Liverpool Scottish’, or one of its sister ‘rifle’ battalions – the fifth and sixth. The Territorial Force, despite being glamourised in the local press, was rarely if ever up to strength. Those who did join the Greys were probably attracted by the prospect of a little extra income, the chance to make new friends and to participate in the annual summer camps. They must never have dreamed that they would end up being sent to the Dardanelles, where they would fight against Turks.
In August 1914, the Greys’ summer camp was curtailed due to the declaration of war and the battalion’s immediate mobilisation. It then moved to Shrewsbury, Church Stretton, Northampton, Cambridge and Bedford. On 13th May 1915, it became part of 159th Brigade, 53rd (Welsh) Division. In July 1915 it sailed from Devonport to the Middle East and landed in Gallipoli on 8th August, as confirmed by Jack’s medal card:-
The Gallipoli Campaign was the Great War’s most infamous sideshow. It was conceived as a way of breaking the stalemate on the Western Front by defeating Germany’s ally, Turkey, and then advancing through the Balkans. For various reasons, including poor British leadership and stiff Turkish defence of their homeland, the plan failed, so that British, French and colonial troops ended up being just as bogged down in trenches as they were in France and Belgium.
The 1/4 Cheshires, as part of 53rd (Welsh) Division, IX Corps (commanded by one of the most incompetent staff officers of the entire war, Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Stopford) landed at Suvla Bay on the night of 8th August as reinforcements. The Battalion War Diary says:-
8.8.15: 6pm to 8pm Bn. received orders to land at C Beach from lighters – SUVLA BAY. Landing completed without opposition. Bivouacked on beach for the night.
The above details correspond with an extract from a letter written by one of Jack’s comrades, W. Smathers of Hoylake, printed in the aforementioned article from the ‘Deeside Advertiser’, in which he said that he had seen Jack Lloyd, ‘that night when we all slept on the beach’. The battalion war diary then hints at the chaos which prevailed on the ground as the 1/4 Cheshires attempted to capture Turkish positions but were beaten back each time and forced to dig and consolidate trenches, not very far from where they had landed. On 12th August it was reported that the battalion had lost about forty officers and seventy men during the previous two days of fighting. Between 13th and 16th August, the battalion was ‘in support at 118 Q 2’, which is surprising, as Jack Lloyd is assumed to have been killed on the 15th, when he might be expected to have died during the attacks of 11th and 12th August. In truth, nobody knew exactly when Jack died. He was still being posted as ‘missing’ by October 1915, when the ‘Deeside Advertiser’ was appealing for more information. His eventual date of death was essentially fixed arbitrarily.
Jack’s body was never recovered and so he is commemorated, just like the next soldier on this site – Lawrence Pope Lucas – on the Helles Memorial to the Missing at Gallipoli. He appears on the Hoylake and West Kirby War Memorial at Grange Hill and on Hoylake’s parish plaques in St. Hildeburg’s Church. Jack was eligible for the 1914-15 Star and British War and Allied Victory Medals.
Notes
Birth: January Quarter of 1895 in Great Meols
Death: 15th August 1915, missing assumed killed at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli
Address: 1 North Terrace, Great Meols
Occupation: Baker’s Assistant (in 1911)
Unit: 1/4 Cheshire Regiment
Number and Rank: 1691, Private
Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War and Allied Victory Medals
Commemorated and Buried: Hoylake and West Kirby War Memorial at Grange Hill, Hoylake Parish Plaques at St. Hildeburgh’s Church, Helles Memorial, Gallipoli Panel 75-77
Sources: West Kirby Book of Remembrance, Soldiers Died in the Great War and Commonwealth War Graves Commission Databases, 1901-1911 censuses, Civil Registration, Medal Card and Roll, ‘Deeside Advertiser’, War Diary
An Imperishable Record 
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