When war broke out in 1914 the 4th Battalion had great difficulty in recruiting sufficient numbers to get it up to wartime strength. When the Battalion was mobilised and sent south to guard the Great Western Railway many of the local employers cried "foul!", and nearly 200 of the men had to be released to return to their civilian occupations.
To ameliorate this problem, in February, 1915, the County Territorial Association decided to form a second-line battalion at Blackpool (the 2nd/4th Battalion) and recruit from that district in addition to north Lancashire. One such recruit was 3361, Private John Cowell, from nearby Preston, who enlisted around the end of April, 1915.
The above photograph was taken while he was stationed at Weeton Camp, Blackpool. Another photograph, taken with two fellow recruits (who are, sadly, unidentified) was taken "somewhere in England."
John was eventually posted out to France with a reinforcement draft to join the 1st/4th Battalion some time in 1916. A few months later, on August 8th, he was killed at Guillemont in one of the abortive attacks on that German stronghold which was to claim so many lives before it was finally captured a month later on September 3rd by the Irish soldiers of the 16th Division. In total, 8 officers and 98 'other ranks' of the 1st/4th Battalion were killed that day; most of their bodies simply vanished on the moonscape battlefield and, like John Cowell, they are now nearly all commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
Shells bursting around Guillemont on August 7th, the day before the assault by the 55th (West Lancashire) Division. By September the area had been totally obliterated by shelling. Hardly surprising, therefore, that there were few identifiable remains of the men of the King's Own who perished on August 8th (King's Own Museum).
My thanks to Mr. Chris Jordan of the U.S.A. for kindly allowing me to use the photographs of John Cowell.
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