Name
Eric Fitzbrown
2nd Aug 1894
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/07/1916
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
The King's (Liverpool Regiment)
18th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 1 D 8 B and 8 C.
France
Headstone Inscription
NA
UK & Other Memorials
Aldenham School Memorial, Aldenham, St Peters Church, Woolton, Merseyside, Woolton Golf Club, Woolton, Merseyside, Hunts Cross Pillar, Merseyside.
Pre War
Eric was born in Hough Green, Widnes on 02/08/1894 and christened at St Michael’s C of E, Ditton, on 2nd September 1894. He was the fourth child of George Fitzbrown (or Fitz Brown), born in Shirley, Hampshire in 1851, managing director of the Broughton Copper Company, and his wife, Eliza Forder Fitzbrown who was born in Highbury, London in 1854.
Eric was educated at Rhos-On-Sea Preparatory School and at Aldenham School, Hertfordshire where he was a member of the Officer Training Corps and shortly before the war apprenticed to a firm of metal brokers.
Wartime Service
He joined the ranks of “C” Company 7th Battalion the Norfolk regiment on 29/08/1914 enlisting as No 12641 in St Pauls Churchyard, London. Whilst stationed at Moore Barracks, Shorncliffe, Eric successfully applied for a commission 2nd Lieutenant in the 18th Battalion Kings (Liverpool) Regiment (2nd Liverpool Pals) on 23/12/1914
Graham Maddocks describes his part in the fighting of 1 st July 1916 - “2nd Lieutenant E. Fitzbrown was the first officer from the 18 th Battalion to reach Silesia Trench (ie the German front line) and as he led his men forward over the obliterated position the Germans were already retreating towards their support line and beyond. Fitzbrown emptied his revolver at them as they ran, and accompanied by the rest of the first wave, pressed on towards this support line. There the British came under machine gun fire from the high ground on the right until the gun was finally silenced... the German support line was then systematically cleared by bombing parties.” However, the Germans quickly recovered from the effects of the allied bombardment and brought their machine guns into concealed positions “and poured a devastating fire onto the third and fourth waves of attacking Pals who were either still leaving the British front line or just crossing No Man’s Land.” “The tenacious Fitzbrown was shot through the head and killed”.
He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
Biography
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
