Matthew Livesey – 6th Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment
Army Number 12634
Matthew Livesey served during the First World War and was awarded the full trio of campaign medals: the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal, indicating he saw active service overseas before the end of 1915. Sadly, only his British War Medal survives today.
His Medal Index Card records his theatre of service as the Balkans, the designation used for the Gallipoli campaign, and this is entirely consistent with service in the 6th (Service) Battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment.
The 6th Battalion was raised at Preston in August 1914 as part of Kitchener’s First New Army (K1), forming part of the 38th Brigade, 13th (Western) Division. The battalion sailed from Avonmouth on 17 June 1915, landing at Cape Helles on 6 July before moving to Anzac on 5 August. They remained on the peninsula until the evacuation in December 1915, after which they proceeded to Egypt and then Mesopotamia.
Livesey’s army number of 12634 places him firmly within the 6th Battalion’s numbering block. A search of Preston Cemetery records uncovered Private Alfred Billington, number 12617, also of the 6th Loyal North Lancashires, who was killed in action at the Dardanelles on 12 August 1915. With only 17 numbers between them, Billington and Livesey would almost certainly have enlisted and been assigned together, providing strong supporting evidence that Livesey served with the same battalion and landed at Gallipoli.