Category Archives: Registered War Grave

Gordon Leonard Stapley

Army, Registered War Grave, Royal Berkshire Regiment, St. Laurence's Church

Gordon Leonard Stapley
Private 41492
6th Royal Berkshire Regt.

 Division 54

Stapley grave

 

Gordon Leonard Stapley was the only son of Mr W J Stapley, of Queen Victoria St. Reading.  He had attended Kendrick School, later amalgamated to form Reading School.  He is buried in a registered war grave and commemorated on a kerb stone of the family grave.   His name also appears on the special memorial in the War Plot.  His grave was lost but the author found the grave and after much digging revealed the kerbstones which had sunk below ground level, although nature will doubtless take its course and the grave may be lost again.

 Gordon Stapley was very artistic and was by trade a stone mason, he worked for his father who had a business designing and making memorial monuments.   His last work was the War Shrine at Knowl Hill Church.  Here to the years and nature have taken their toll and lichens have obscured the 197 names of those soldiers, sailors and airman who were killed and are commemorated on the memorial.

 Gordon Stapley joined the Berkshire Yeomanry in January 1917 and was later transferred to the 6th Battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regt.  He was sent to the front and 24 hours after his arrival was wounded by a shell which landed two yards away from him, causing compound fractures of the right arm.  He was sent to Fazakerley Hospital, Liverpool, and appeared to be progressing satisfactorily when pneumonia developed.  He died on 31st October 1917, aged 25 years.  His was a military funeral.

Seymour Waldegrave Soole

Reading School War Memorial, Reading University College, Registered War Grave

Seymour Waldegrave Soole
Gunner 199044 3rd Reserve Brigade
Royal Horse Artillery

 Division 46

SOOLE SW CEM  CIMG2209

Seymour Waldegrave Soole, was the eldest son of Laura Sophia Soole and the late Rev. S. H. Soole, of 3, Castle Crescent, Reading.

His is a registered war grave but bears a private memorial, number 7627.

 His death was reported in the Reading Standard, the newspaper for which he had worked.

Death of Gunner S. W. Soole

“To his journalist friends the death of gunner Seymore Waldegrave Soole, RHA, came  as a great shock.  Just three weeks ago the deceased joined the colours, he was taken ill at Portsmouth and died suddenly on Saturday of cerebro-menigitis.  The deceased aged 40, was the eldest son of the late Rev. Seymour H. Soole, vicar of Greyfriars’, Reading and grandson of the late Martin Hope Sutton, founder of the firm Sutton and Sons.  For over ten years Mr. Soole had  been on the literary staff of the “Reading Standard”.  He was educated at Bradfield college and at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating with Honours.  He performed his duties with courtesy and unostentation, and was greatly esteemed by his journalistic colleagues in Reading”. 

Then follows a list of the mourners.

“The grave was lined with ivy and moss, entwined with white a salmon cyclamen, and the laurel wreath and sheaf of violets were lowered with the coffin, which had been covered with a Union Jack”.

A list of the floral tributes followed. 

William Smith

Alfred Sutton School War Memorial, Registered War Grave

William Smith
Private 37581
1st  Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment

Division 55

Smith W (AS sch) photo Smith W (AS sch) grave

A William Smith is named on the Alfred Sutton School war memorial. Berkshire and the War revealed the picture above of William Thomas Smith.  The headstone is to W. Smith, of the Royal Berkshire Regiment who was the son of Samuel William and Mary Smith,
of  17, Parnell Street, Reading.  William died March 7th 1917, aged 19.  He is buried at Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, a village not far from the town of Albert.   

The picture above is of a William Thomas Smith,  a different address is given for the parents – 34 Westbourne Terrace. It is possible that the family had moved by the time the gravewasregistered. However, the boy in the picture is 19 years and the caption says died of wounds.  It is possible that they are one and the same person. 

 However, there is also a William Smith in the CWGC register for Reading Cemetery, this man is listed as:

SMITH,  Pte. William, R4/110946.  Army Service Corps. 2nd April, 1916

He is  buried in Division 55, Grave number 10239.   

There are no other details.  This entry serves to highlight some of the difficulties that a researcher has to deal with especially when personal details were omitted from registration forms.