Category Archives: Graves

Albert Gilbert Allen

Alfred Sutton School War Memorial, Army, Cambrai, Commemorated name/s, Royal Berkshire Regiment

Albert Gilbert Allen
Private 45498
8th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment

 

 Allen AG photo  Allen AG Rcem com

Albert Allen was aged 18 years when he was killed in action on 23rd October 1918.  He was the youngest  of seven brothers serving “Their King and Country”.  The notice of his death appeared in the Chronicle on 6th December 1918.  His parents lived at 56, Filey Road.  Albert’s name is commemorated on the Vis-en-Artois memorial panel 7.  The memorial was erected to the memory of those who fell in the advance from 8th August 1918 to the Armistice 11th November 1918.

 On the 22nd October 1918 the 8th Battalion moved to Le Cateau, as part of the 18th Division which was due to attack the following day.  We are told in “Their Duty Done” Colin Fox et al that “by late evening the men were in their assembly positions east of the village facing L’‹vÃque Wood.  The ground over which the attack was to be made was rough grassland with no connected trench systems but with strong German defensive positions organised in depth around machine gun posts……………..Zero hour was 1.20am on 23rd October.  The Royal Berkshires’ assembly point was a deep railway cutting east of Le Cateau from where they would advance onto the second objective.  Enemy shelling here caused 15 casualties…..a temporary dressing station was blown in by a gas shell…….At 1.15am the companies moved out of the cutting…..A creeping barrage moving forward at the rate of 25 yards a minute supported the attack……..At day break the enemy began to retire and Captain M Wykes took the leading companies of the two battalions and rushed the road, capturing over 30 light and heavy machine guns.  The advance continued and the second objective, a line some 1,500 yards beyond the first…..was taken by 8.30am and held throughout the day”.  The total advance for the day was some 8,000 yards.  Casualties for the day were reported as one officer killed, two officers wounded, other ranks – 19 killed, 1 died of wounds, 67 wounded and 3 missing.  Albert Allen was one of those killed in action.

William Adnams

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Primitive Methodists' Memorial

William Adnams
Gunner 129930
99th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery

Division 71
Extension

ADNAMS W CEM

William Adnams died of gas shell wounds on 28th June 1916.  He was the son of William and Emily Adnams, of Reading.  William was the husband of Lizzie Adnams, of 55 Spring Gardens, Whitley, Reading.    He is commemorated on the family grave. Number 18121.  The Berkshire Family History Society classification is 71J13.

The notification of his death appeared in The Standard July 13th 1918 commented, “He was a dutiful son and devoted husband and beloved by all”, together with the following poem.
Not now, but in the coming years.
It may be in a Better Land,
We’ll know the meaning of our tears,
And then sometime we’ll understand.

 William Adnams was aged 32.  He was buried in Aire Communal Cemetery, pas De Calais.  Location III.E.5.  Aire was a peaceful centre used by Commonwealth forces as corps headquarters.  Burials in plots II.III.IV. rows A – F, relate to the fighting of 1918, when the 54th Casualty Clearing Station came to Aire and the town was, for a short time, within 13 kilometres of the German lines.

 *Further research is required to discover the service career of William Adnams.

J.H. Adams

Army, Registered War Grave, Royal Berkshire Regiment

J. H. Adams
Private 54358
3rd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regt.

Division 35

CIMG2108CIMG2109

 

Private Adams died 2nd November 1918, aged 31.  He was the son of John and Elizabeth Adams and the husband of Frances E. Adams, of 20, St. John’s Hill, Reading.  He had been born at Bermondsey, London. A personal communication from  a Gill Read has given information stating that John Adams died in Portobello Military Hospital, Dublin, Ireland of pneumonia syncope.

He has a CWGC war pattern headstone, grave number 5058.