Category Archives: Graves

Arthur Pike

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments

Arthur Pike
Fitter 87500 “A” Battery
282nd Army Brigade Royal Field Artillery

 Division 68
Extension

Pike A photo

 

Arthur Pike was the son of John and Mary Pike and commemorated on their grave with the words ‘FELL IN ACTION July 30th 1917 and buried at Poperinghe, Belgium.  He is buried in the Gwalia Cemetery, location Plot 1. G. 35.  The grave in the Reading Cemetery is classified as  69B14 according to the  Berkshire Family History Society classification.

 The Gwalia Cemetery was opened at the beginning of July 1917, in the period between the Battle of Messines and the Battles of Ypres.  It lay among the camps in flat country and was used by Infantry units, Artillery and Field Ambulances until September 1918.  The Third Battle of Ypres began on the 31st July 1917.  It is possible that Arthur Pike was killed in counter battery operations prior to the start of the battle. 

Harry Richard Piggot

Army, Commemorated name/s, Royal Berkshire Regiment

Harry Piggott
Private 21758
8th Royal Berkshire Regt.

 Division 54

Piggot H graave

 

Harry Richard Piggott is commemorated on a scroll headstone on the grave of his father Richard Piggott and probably also that of his mother Kate.  The 1911 census indicates that he was living at 51, Katesgrove Lane, Reading.His fathers occupation is given as boat man, Harry worked as a labourer at the Brewery and his younger brother as an ironmongers messenger. He was born in July 1892 in Weybridge, Surrey although the rest of his family were born around the Reading area. He married in July 1915 in Reading.

 Harry Piggott was killed on September 3rd 1916 in the battle for High Wood on the Somme.   High Wood was an objective in the early days of the Somme battle.  It escaped capture for many weeks due lethal machine guns and a well fortified trench in the northern part of the wood.   Thousands of men were killed attempting to capture this vantage point from the Germans.  The first major attack was in a well documented night assault, the cavalry were to play a part in one attack but time and time again the Germans made a successful counter attack.   For the 8th Berks. zero hour was noon September 3rd , the signal a mine explosion.  Together with the 1st Camerons the Berkshire boys went over the top, some were killed in their own barrage.  After severe hand to hand fighting the trench was taken but. the Germans once more counter attacked and by 3.30p.m three officers and one hundred men had been killed and the battalion was back at its original starting point.  Again “the hell they called High Wood” was so nearly in the grasp of the British.  It was finally taken on September 15th 1916, the same day that tanks were used for the first time in battle.

 Harry Piggott is buried in Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, location X.D.2.  His headstone bears an inscription from his wife.  A picture of Caterpillar Valley Cemetery  appeared on a Post Office Millennium Stamp launched 8th October 1999.

John Piggott Wheeler

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Reading School War Memorial, Ypres

John Piggott Wheeler M.C.
Major – “D” Battery,
92nd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery

 Division 32

CIMG2175 CIMG2176

 

John Piggott Wheeler, was the youngest son of Samuel Wheeler and Elizabeth Wheeler of, 30, Craven Road, Reading.  He is commemorated on a family memorial in the corner of Division.  John Wheeler was born in June 1892, and entered the Royal Artillery from the Territorial Force in August 1914. 

 He received his M.C. for “Conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty.  He, with great coolness and disregard of danger, reorganised his drivers and teams, and succeeded in getting his guns into action under the most trying conditions”.

He was killed in action on 29th October 1917, aged 25.   He is buried in Vlamertinghe New Military Cemetery, Belgium, location Plot 9, Row E. Grave 23.