Out & About Autumn 2018

1916

able to trace descendants of the family who have now had the grave restored. Alexander Herbert Davis has a house at St Bartholomew’s School named after him. Not a direct casualty of war, but a soldier in the Artists’ Rifles, he was buried with full military honours, following an operation for a brain tumour. (seated at the centre in the front row holding the football)

The Somme L ocal soldiers were among the 420,000 British casualties of the Somme offensive. 2nd Lieutenant Basil Henry Belcher was in a trench near

the French town of Albert with the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment. He was reported missing on July 1, 1916, but the family had to wait an agonising 10 months before the Army Council concluded that he must have been killed in action and was confirmed dead on May 10, 1917. Phil Wood says that Basil’s

Reginald Mccabee

M ost war dead were buried where they died, but there are 16 Commonwealth War Graves from the First World War in Newtown Road Cemetery, all with a story to tell. The Friends of Newtown Cemetery is working towards compiling records of all who are buried there and below are the details of some of those soldiers in the conflict. Other locals who were also killed on July 1, 1916 include Royal Fusilier Lance Cpl James Henry Reynolds , the only son of Mr and Mrs J Reynolds of Woolton Hill; 20-year-old Lt Charles Scroop Egerton Green , of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, also from Woolton Hill; Lance Cpl Ernest Cole , aged 23, a stretcher bearer in the 6th Royal Berkshire Regiment and the son of Mr and Mrs James Cole, of the Falcon Inn, Theale; Captain Charles Kingstone Butler , of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, the eldest son of Mr and Mrs C Butler of Standen Manor, Hungerford; Second Lt Eric Hobbs , 21,of the Royal West Surrey Regiment (Queen’s) the son of Mr and Mrs Ernest Hobbs of Lea Hurst, Newbury. body was one of the few to be recovered from the battlefield and it lies in the Serre Road No 2 Cemetery in The Somme. He is also remembered on New- bury’s war memorial. Basil’s brother Wilfred suvived the war, but three of his cousins were also killed. Basil Belcher

Harold Sidney Freeman was one of the thousands of casualties of the first day of the Battle of the Somme (July 1, 1916). Wounded and sent home, he died in a military hospital on September 6. For more information visit www.fnrcnewbury.org.uk An extract from a letter from ‘a young Newbury officer’ to his father after The Push, dated July 3, which appeared in full in the NWN edition of July 20, 1916, under the heading The British Offensive What the Berkshires Accomplished “Saturday, June 24th, was the opening day of bombardment, which lasted continuously for seven days; it was originally intended to last five days, but the advance had to be postponed for two days on account of the weather. It was intended that the Infantry should go over the top at dawn of June 29th, but we actually went over at 7.30 a.m. on July 1st. For three days of the bombardment we were behind the lines, and so out of reach of the Boche guns, but for four days we had to stick not only the sound of our guns, but also the enemy’s retaliation. Such a bombardment as our artillery gave them, has probably not been equalled even in this war. All the ac- cumulated mass of guns and shells, of trench mortars and shrapnel, which has been turned out of our factories during the last year, was turned on the enemy, and for seven days without rest, we rained shell and shrapnel on the enemy’s trenches, which were completely smashed up along the whole front. “The enemy’s retaliation was feeble, but he shifted his guns back and gave us rather a hot time in the front line – shells falling actu- ally in our trenches and causing a great many casualties. Shells are very bad for the heart, and as you can imagine, my nerves were in a continual state of tension during all the preliminary bombardment. A great many men in my trench were buried by the shells, but we managed to dig them out again. Sleep, of course, was out of the question, and I have had no continuous sleep for nearly a week. I have simply snatched an hour or so at intervals in the bombard- ment. Last night when we were relieved, I got a good night’s rest, however.

Edward Pellew Plenty , son of the head of Plenty’s, the well-known Newbury employer. A flying ace who made repeated flights over France, he was promoted to Major at 20. He survived the war only to die on November 22, 1918 – 11 days after the Armistice – of Spanish Flu. Thomas Arthur & Reginald Joseph Maccabee were both badly injured at the Battle of Cambray, 1917. Reginald died in a casualty clearing station on the

Edward Plenty

battlefield, but Thomas was rescued after laying three days in no-man’s land: besides his injuries he was also frost-bitten. He had both legs amputated and seven fingers and finally succumbed to his injuries on March 1, 1920. Phil Wood had the grave officially recognised by the CWGC and, following a letter printed in the NWN, the group was

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