Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (9th Battalion) Service no. 49737
Son of Herbert Byers and Hannah Bickerdike of Well Lane, Kippax
Husband of Gertie Clayton of Leeds Lane, Kippax
Died 14th August 1918 in Germany, aged 39
Story
The 9th Battalion of the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry went through some very hard fighting on the Somme and other places on the Western Front. Private Byers was killed in the last few months of the war. His death was “presumed”, and his body was never found. Robert was a coal miner who married Gertrude Clayton on 21st June 1906 in Kippax. Robert left behind 7 children, and his eldest child Dorothy also passed away around the same time in 1918. Their son Leonard Byers was killed in a military accident three months before the outbreak of the Second World War. Robert’s widow Gertie received £22 10s from the army after her husband’s death. Her father committed suicide in 1926 after being injured by a cyclist, and her mother passed away the following year. Gertie never re-married.
Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry 9th Battalion
9th Battalion, Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry was raised at Pontefract in September 1914 as part of Kitchener’s Third New Army and joined 64th Brigade, 21st Division. After initial training close to home they moved to Berkhamsted and then to Halton Park in October. They spent the winter in billets in Maidenhead from November and returned to Halton Park in April 1915. They moved to Witley for final training in August and proceeded to France in September 1915.
Robert is remembered on the Soissons Memorial to the missing, Aisne, France (below):
Kippax Roll of Honour 