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16th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment
The 16th (2nd Birkenhead) Battalion, Cheshire Regiment was raised at Birkenhead as a Bantam Battalion on the 3rd of December 1914 by Alfred Bigland MP. Bantam Battalions were those which admitted troops who were under the normal regulation minimum height of 5 feet 3 inches.
After initial training close to home, they moved to Hoylake. In June 1915 :they joined 105th Brigade, 35th Division at Masham, North Yorkshire. The Battalion was adopted by the War Office on the 15th of August 1915 and they moved to Salisbury Plain for final training. They were ordered to Egypt in late 1915, but the order was soon cancelled and they proceeded to France in the last week of January 1916, landing at Le Havre and the division concentrated east of St Omer. They were in action during the Battles of the Somme at Bazentin Ridge, Arrow Head Copse, Maltz Horn Farm and Falfemont Farm. The division received new drafts of men to replace losses suffered on the Somme, but the CO. soon discovered that these new recruits were not of the same physical standard as the original Bantams, being men of small stature from the towns, rather than the miners and farm workers who had joined up in 1915. A medical inspection was carried out and 1439 men were transferred to the Labour Corps. Their places being taken by men transferred from the disbanded yeomanry regiments, who underwent a quick training course in infantry methods at a Divisional depot set up specifically for that purpose. In 1917 they were in action during The pursuit to the Hindenburg Line, at Houthulst Forest and The Second Battle of Passchendaele. In early 1918 the army was reorganised and on the 6th of February the 16th Cheshires disbanded in Belgium, with troops transferring to other units.
May 1915 Training 
16th (2nd Birkenhead) Battalion, Cheshire Regiment digging trenches during training at Neols in Cheshire, May 1915. © IWM (Q 53723)
1st Jun 1916 Under Instruction 
If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.
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| Want to know more about 16th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment? There are:5232 items tagged 16th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.
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Those known to have served with16th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment during the Great War 1914-1918. - Albiston Luke. Pte. (d.22nd October 1917)
- Barrett Alfred Edward. Pte. (d.26th October 1917)
- Bird Hedley Alfred. Pte. (d.3rd March 1917)
- Bird Hedley Alfred. Pte. (d.3rd Mar 1917)
- Bird Hedley Alfred. Pte. (d.3rd March 1917)
- Elliott MID. James Dunsmoor. 2nd Lt. (d.22nd October 1917)
- Evans Thomas. CSM
- Hawthorn Robert. Pte. (d.28th March 1918)
- Macdonald Thomas. Pte. (d.19th July 1916)
- McCue John Joseph. Pte. (d.12th Mar 1916)
- Robertson William. Pte. (d.22nd Oct 1917)
- Speight Thomas. Pte. (d.19th July 1916)
All names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please Add a Name to this List
Records of 16th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment from other sources.
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CSM Thomas Evans 16th Btn. Cheshire Regiment After being discharged from the K.O.Y.L.I. due to ill health (deafness, rheumatism and debility) aged 63 years in November 1914, Thomas Evans joined the Cheshire Regiment in December 1914 stating his age as 45 years and 5 months.
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Pte. Robert Hawthorn 16th Btn. Cheshire Regiment (d.28th March 1918) Robert Hawthorn died on 28th March 1918 aged 22 and is buried in the St Sever Cemetery extension in France.
Son of Mr. and Mrs. Hawthorn, of 31, Molyneux St., Derby Rd., Bootle Liverpool.
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Pte. John Joseph McCue 16th Btn. Cheshire Regiment (d.12th Mar 1916) John Joseph McCue was killed on 12th of March 1916 by a rifle grenade explosion in the trench.
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Pte. William Robertson 16th Battalion Cheshire Regiment (d.22nd Oct 1917) William Robertson was the only child of my great grand mother Jane Bennett and her first husband James Robertson, he was born 1898. James Robertson died in 1899 when William was one year old. Jane Bennett married my great grandfather Albert Hall, 5th January 1901 and had four more children, the second being my grandmother Lily Hall (b.1903). William's mother Jane died in 1911 when he was 12.
On the 1901 and 1911 census' William is living with his paternal grandfather Thomas Bennett and his second wife Mary Jane France.
I have a copy of William's WWI service records and a cousin of my mum's has sent me photographs of William's war medals, Memorial Plaque, British War Medal and Victory Medal. My relative always wondered why the medals were in his family's possession as he thought William was his father's stepbrother, he didn't realise it was his father's half brother. I would be grateful for any other information you have on William Robertson.
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Pte. Alfred Edward Barrett 16th Battalion Cheshire Regiment (d.26th October 1917) Alfred Barrett was my great uncle. I only found out about him because I started to do family history and found he was a brother of my paternal grandmother. He is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial.
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Pte. Luke Albiston 16th Btn. B Coy. 14th Platoon Cheshire Regiment (d.22nd October 1917) Luke Albiston was the eldest son of Joseph and Elizabeth Ann Albiston of 68 Aberdeen Crescent, Stockport. In the 1911 census, he was shown as aged 13 and at school. His younger siblings were Ethel, Jennie, Joseph, and Reginald. His paternal grandmother Rachel also lived with the family.
Luke was reported wounded and missing on 22nd October 1917 during the Third Battle of Ypres. His parents placed an advertisement in the Stockport Express on 6th December 1917 asking for any news of him. There appears to have been no replies as his name is on Tyne Cot Memorial.
Luke's name appears on the memorial to Stockport Corporation Employees killed in World War One, which is in the foyer of the Town Hall. It has not been possible to ascertain his occupation. The memorial is a replacement to the original (now lost) and stands on a wall adjacent to a similar memorial for World War Two casualties.
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2nd Lt. James Dunsmoor Elliott MID. 16th (Birkenhead) Btn. Cheshire Regiment (d.22nd October 1917) James Elliott was a Lieutenant in the 16th (Birkenhead) Battalion, Cheshire Regiment.
James was born at 43 Lady Lane, Paisley, the son of John (a smith's hammerman and councillor) and Susan Sennett Elliot, resident of 5 George
Street, Paisley. He was educated at Camphill School and was a member of George Street U.F. Church.
Formerly a music hall artiste, he enlisted in December 1915. James was promoted for bravery during the Somme fighting to Sergeant Major and was mentioned in Sir D. Haig's dispatches. He was commissioned in February 1917.
James was killed on 22nd October 1917 aged 25. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium and on his local war memorial.
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Pte. Thomas Speight 16th Battalion Cheshire Regiment (d.19th July 1916) My grandfather's brother Thomas Speight died in the Battle of the Somme and is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial in France. I have just discovered he must have been short, so joined the Bantams in the Cheshire Regiment. Not enough of him to bury.
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Pte. Hedley Alfred Bird 16th Btn. Cheshire Regiment (d.3rd March 1917) Hedley Alfred Bird was killed in action 03/03/1917, aged 22 and buried in the Fouquescourt British Cemetery in France.
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Pte. Hedley Alfred Bird 16th Battalion Cheshire Regiment (d.3rd Mar 1917) Hedley Alfred Bird was born in Scottow, Norfolk on 22nd February 1895. In 1907, when Hedley was aged 12, his mother died of breast cancer and Hedley went to live with his grandparents and sister in Ivy House, Scottow, whose photograph he took to France with him during World War One. When war was declared in 1914, most of the village lads enlisted. Hedley enlisted when he was 20 in 1915 into the Royal Cheshire Regiment, 16th Battalion and did some training in Pocklington, Yorkshire. On March 3rd, 1917, after only three days in France, he was killed. He was just 22 years old. He is buried in Fouquescourt Cemetary, France.
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Pte. Hedley Alfred Bird 16th Battalion Cheshire Regiment (d.3rd March 1917) When war was declared in 1914 and most of the village lads from Scottow enlisted. Hedley Alfred Bird enlisted in 1915 but on March 3rd, 1917, after only three days in France, he was killed. He was just 22 years old.
He is buried in Fouquescourt Military Cemetary in France.
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