Category Archives: Graves

Robert Methven Deadman

Alfred Sutton School War Memorial, Commemorated name/s, Navy

Robert Methven Deadman
Wireless Operator Merchant Navy

 Division 3

Deadman RM photo  CIMG2080

Robert Methven* Deadman was the son of Ernest Bezant and Helen Deadman, 28 Manchester Road. Reading.

 He was attached to the S. S. “Romeo” (Hull). On 3rd March 1918 the vessel was torpedoed by a German submarine and broke in two, Robert drowned,  it was his first trip and he was 17 years old.  His name can be found on a family headstone in Division 3 of the Reading Cemetery but the small scroll stone bears no other indication of how he died or that he was killed during the war. 

Robert Methven Deadman is commemorated officially on the Towerhill Memorial, London along with other Mercantile Marine casualties.  He had been a Senior pupil of the Wokingham Road Senior School, now Alfred Sutton Primary School, and his name appears on the War memorial in the Junior Hall.

alfred sutton mem

 

*This name has also been spelt Mithven

Frank Groves Dawbney

Navy, Registered War Grave

Frank Groves Dawbney
Ships Steward M/11801
H.M.S. “Falmouth”

 Division 52

Dawbney FG photo

Frank Groves Dawbney died suddenly from heart failure.  He had enlisted on 8th February 1915 and had always enjoyed good health and passed three doctors. 

 The Captain of the Falmouth wrote to Mrs Dawbney ” I very much regret to have to inform you that your son Frank Groves Dawbney, ship steward’s assistant died suddenly at 4.15 a.m. on the 18th May 1915 of heart failure.  He had only been in the ship for a short period, and was well liked by the ship’s company, and his death was much felt among his mess mates.  There is no doubt that he has sacrificed his life for his country as truly as those who have fallen in action.  It must be a comfort to you to know that his death must have been  a painless one”.

 He was educated at Ardingly college and York House.  He stated his career as an Architect in Reading before moving to work for London County Council.  He was a young man of great promise – his early death coming as a great shock, only the day before his death he wrote to parents saying he was quite well.  The body was interred in the family grave, the coffin covered with a Union Jack and there were many floral tributes.  There were many mourners.  His father was a prominent Conservative and vice-chairman of the Katesgrove Ward No1.  The grave is a registered war grave, number 11925.

Joseph Davis

Australian, Commemorated name/s, Reading Blue Coat School, Somme

Joseph Davis
Private 3154
49th Battalion Australian Imperial Force

Division 40

CIMG2198

Joseph Davis, is commemorated on a family memorial.  Grave number 8790.  He was killed in action at Dernancourt, a small village SW of Albert, Somme, on 5th April 1918.  The village was captured by the Germans for a time during the spring offensive to be reclaimed later in the year by the allies.   

Joseph Davis has no known grave.  His name is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.  This is the Australian National Monument erected to commemorate Australian soldiers who fought in France and Belgium, to their dead, and especially those of the dead who have no known graves.  These soldiers fell in the battlefields of the Somme, Arras and the “Hundred Days”.  There are over 10,000 casualties commemorated on this memorial.