FRIDAY FOTO 10 - THE ERLIS FAMILY, LIVERPOOL

A family photograph of the ERLIS family of Toxteth.

Thomas & Frances Midwood Erlis are pictured sitting outside their home, the outside of which has been decorated to celebrate a royal event - 

possibly the Silver Jubilee of George V of 1935. 

It was a normal, happy family moment caught by the camera. 

But along with many other families who lived in Liverpool at the time, the Erlis' were to suffer tragedy during the Second World War.

On the 6 May 1941 the family home at 12 Gaskell Street, Toxteth took a direct hit during a German air raid.

Their daughter Lilian, seen here standing proudly next to her Mum, was killed as a result of the bombing. She is officially listed among the war dead of Liverpool for 1941. A separate post about Lilian can be found <here>.

But the mother of the family was also badly injured. Frances tragically lost both her legs during the incident, and was forced to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair - a fact remembered by my own mother.

(photo courtesy of Lilian Wilson and Marion Wilkinson)

LILIAN MIDWOOD ERLIS - The May Blitz

Right in the middle of one of the most intensive German bombing campaigns to hit Liverpool, the ‘May Blitz’ as it became known - seven consecutive nights from the 1 to 7 May 1941 - took the lives of over 1700 people from the city and its surrounding areas, and injured more than 1100 more. During this time around 680 Luftwaffe bombers flew overhead during the nights, dropping almost 2500 high explosive bombs and incendiary weapons onto the city below.

Unexploded Land Mine - (Liverpool Museums)

Bomb Damage (Liverpool Echo)

My own family lived in Hughson Street in Toxteth, and my mother can still recall the night when the house next door was blown to bits by a German bomb - the occupants of the house escaped injury as they were sharing my grandparents air-raid shelter at the time. I can’t be sure of the exact date when this occurred, but I would imagine that there is a good chance that it happened during this particular bombing campaign. However, I can pinpoint another tragic family event which is directly connected to this period of the Blitz.

Lilian Erlis (b.1923 - d.1941)

Today is the 6th May 1941 - 74 years to the day when 18 year-old Lilian Erlis was tragically killed during a bombing raid which took out the family home at 12 Gaskell Street, Toxteth. As can be seen by the map section below, Gaskell Street was situated just a few streets away from where my own family were sheltering in Hughson, and the record shows that the general area was hit quite a number of times - potentially a consequence of the close proximity of the nearby docks.

Gaskell Street, Toxteth, Liverpool (Godfrey - 1908)

Lilian herself would have been sheltering at home with her family at the time of the air-raid, either inside the house itself or in a purpose built shelter nearby. As well as her mother and father, Lilian had three sisters and four brothers - at least two of the brothers would probably have been away fighting for the British forces - the rest may well have been alongside her at the time the bomb fell. It is also likely that her mother, Frances Midwood Erlis, was also injured during the same raid… my mother remembers well that Mrs Erlis Snr (as she knew her), lost both of her legs during the war and ended up in a wheelchair.

Lilian has been remembered and listed within the lists of civilian war dead by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It is eye-opening indeed to look through even just a few pages of these documents, for it soon becomes clear that on occasion entire families had been wiped out during the raids - and the location of death involved everything from private homes to shops, mills, warehouses and dockland. Perhaps in hindsight, the remaining Erlis family (and certainly my own mother’s family in nearby Hughson Street), were very lucky to survive indeed.

But today - 74 years after the event - I’ll think about the little girl with the tennis racquet, and all those others who perished and were torn from their loved ones in such a tragic way.

As the lady once said... 'Bless 'em all'.

Commemoration (CWGC)

FAMILY HISTORY - MAURICE LAIT (Killed in Action - WW1)

MAURICE LAIT – Killed in Action (WW1)

Toward the middle of last year, when the 100 year commemorations into the start of World War 1 took place, I started running searches on the internet to see how many of my relatives I could find who had served during the conflict. I ran individual surname searches, beginning with the UK Medal card index which was available on Ancestry.co.uk. Following my search of the surname ‘LAIT’ (my paternal grandmother's side of the family), the name Maurice Lait was returned, and I realised that he could be a match with my own family connections.

Maurice Lait – medal card - (source: National Archives)

I had only scant information about Maurice at the time – an approximate date of birth and his death given as 1916. However the more I began to search and dig into the archives, all the more information was revealed to me.

Maurice Lait was my second cousin, 3 times removed. He was born in Blaby in Leicestershire, a small village to the south of the city of Leicester, in approx. 1888 to his parents, Alfred and Emily Ann (nee Morris) Lait. Maurice was the middle child of at least three in the family - he had two sisters, Ann (born in 1885) and Ivy (born in 1891).  

I found the family on the 1891 census, and Maurice’s age was given as 2 years old. The family were living at number 12 Portland Road, Knighton in Leicestershire. Like Blaby had been previously, Knighton was a suburb of Leicester at the time. I searched for Portland Road on Google maps and found that is still in existence today, but the property mentioned above has now been replaced by offices / flats.

Site of 12 Portland Road – (source: Google Maps)

On the date when the 1891 census was taken, Maurice’s father Alfred was aged 36 and was stated to be a commercial traveller. Alfred’s birthplace was said to be Diss in Norfolk, the small market town where my Lait family had their original coach-building businesses.

Maurice’s mother Emily Ann was given as 40 years old, and her birthplace was given as Wellington Street, West London. Both of his sisters, Ann (written as ‘Ana’ in the census), and Ivy respectively were 6 years and 1 month old. Also in the property were Annie Isabel Chapman, a 13 year old domestic servant, and Harriet Shaw, a 58 year old widow who was a nurse.

1891 census – (source: National Archives)

Ten years later, when the 1901 census was taken the family were living at Scarbow Villa's, Fairfield Road, Buxton. Alfred was still employed as a commercial traveller aged 46... Maurice's mother was now aged 50. In 1901 his sister Ann was now 16 years old, and was training as a pupil school teacher. Maurice himself was 12 years old (his given name had been written ‘Morris’ by the enumerator), and his younger sister Ivy was 10 years old. There was also a new domestic general servant in the property, a lady called Judith Broomhead, and she was 60 years old.

1901 census – (source: National Archives)

Maurice Lait – Military Service

In 1914 it was recorded that Maurice joined the York and Lancaster Regiment (12th Battalion), and his short service attestation papers were located on Ancestry.co.uk. His regiment number was 12/430.

Maurice was 25 when he first joined the regiment. He joined in Sheffield as a Private on 15th September 1914. In his service record Maurice was described as being 5 feet 6 inches tall, and weighed 140lbs. His complexion was fair, his eyes grey and his hair brown. The examining medical officer stated that he had no distinguishing marks (tattoos, birthmarks etc). His religious persuasion was stated to be Church of England.

Between 15 Sept 1914 and 19 December 1915 it was not clear in his service record where he was originally located. However, I subsequently found an excellent resource ‘The Long, Long Trail – the British Army in the Great War of 1914 / 1918’ (see link at http://www.1914-1918.net/yorkslancs.htm ) which gave me further information.

The 12^th Battalion (often known as the Sheffield City Battalion) was formed in Sheffield on 5^th September 1914. In May 1915 the men were based firstly at Penkridge Camp in the midlands, and then went to Ripon in July and finally Salisbury Plain in October that same year. During this period the men would have undergone intensive battle training of various kinds in order to prepare them for what they would face on the battlefield. Finally, on 20th December 1915, the battalion was moved to Egypt to serve as part of an expeditionary force until 9th March 1916, before it was finally relocated to Flanders in France from the 10^th March of 1916.

Maurice was only in France for a little over 3 months before he was unfortunately killed in action in Flanders on the 1st July 1916. He had been just 26 years old. Following his death, his service papers gave his home address as 64 Starcourt Road, but as yet I have been unable to find out where this might have been. The records also confirmed his father Alfred Lait as his next-of-kin who was living at ‘Oakfield’, Sylvan Cliff, Buxton. This road still exists at the time of researching this data (2015), but the actual property itself has not been identified.

There is evidence in his service papers that Maurice's personal effects were sent back to his father to the address in Buxton on 15th August 1917. Furthermore, in 1920 the UK WW1 Medal rolls recorded that Maurice was eligible for the Victory Medal and also the British War Medal for his services to his country. 

Medal roll records – (source: National Archives)

Maurice’s death and burial was recorded in the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). His name features on the Thiepval Cemetary memorial in the Somme. A commemorative plaque in PDF format was found to be available on the website (see below).

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/799004/LAIT,%20MAURICE

Memorial record – (source: CWGC)

Thiepval Memorial, Somme – (source: CWGC)

Graham Seaman (15/1/2015)