Category Archives: Reading Blue Coat School

Joseph William Odell and brothers – Odell

Alfred Sutton School War Memorial, Army, Berkshire Yeomanry, Dardanelles, Graves, Other Regiments, Reading Blue Coat School, Royal Berkshire Regiment, Somme

Joseph William Odell
Trooper 1st Berkshire Yeomanry

 Division 65

JW Odell Odell AG photo bros Joseph Odell EV photo

Joseph Odell was the son of Mr and Mrs Joseph Odell of 87, Cardigan Road.  After leaving school he went to work for Pulsometer Engineering. Joseph was a well-liked young man who had joined the Yeomanry two years before the war.  He was passed as fit by the Doctors and went to serve in Egypt.  He had been there for only a few weeks when he was taken ill and on 12th August 1915 just days before his unit was due to land at Suvla Bay. He was evacuated back to England where he was first sent to hospital in Birmingham and then to Norton, Gloucester and then Pinewood at Hastings.  It was found that he was suffering so badly from tuberculosis that he was sent home to his parents where he eventually died on 3rd February 1916.  He was 22 years of age.

His funeral was military in character with buglers of the Yeomanry sounding the last post. Representatives of his squadron were Trooper Frederick Potts V.C. and Trooper Cook.  There were many mourners including his parents and two brothers as well as other family members and friends including those from Pulsometer Engineering Works and St. Lukes Club.

Joseph Odell was buried in the Reading Cemetery in Division 65.  There was no grave marker but the Thames Valley Branch of the Western Front Association and the Berkshire Yeomanry raised funds to erect a headstone similar in character to that of the CWGC headstone. It was dedicated on 26 June 2004 in a ceremony attended by the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire, the Honorary Colonel of the Yeomanry, representatives  of the Yeomanry Museum and members of the WFA. The headstone was unveiled by veteran William Stone aged 103.

Odell headstone and WStone

 

His brother Lance Corporal 2442 Edward Victor Odell, 1st / 4th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment was killed in action on 14th August 1916, he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing Pier and Face 11D.

Odell EV name

There were no family details given in the CWGC register entry.  The Standard September 9th 1916, gave details of the death of Edward Victor Odell.  He had been a bugler in the Territorials for five years before the war but had left a few months before war was declared.  Edward re-enlisted in the first week of the war joining the 1st/4th Royal Berkshire Regiment.  He had been at the front 17 months when he was killed in the Somme battles.  In civil life, Edward had been a printer for eight years with Messer’s Bradley and Sons, the Forbury.  Edward was married and his son, whom he never saw, was born nine days before the notification of Edward’s death.

The Standard reports the existence of a third brother A.G. Odell who enlisted in the Royal Garrison Artillery at the beginning of the war.  Lance Bombardier, 42215, Albert George Odell served with the 122nd Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery.  He was killed in action on 18th June 1918, aged 23. He is buried in Wailly Orchard Cemetery, Pas De Calais.  Location II.D.4.  He was the husband of E.L.Ward, formerly Odell of 47, Albert Road, Reading.  It was originally difficult to locate this brother because the CWGC detail spelt the surname as O’Dell rather than Odell which is common to other memorials to the brothers.

All the Odell brothers are commemorated on the Reading Blue Coat School War Memorial.

Sidney Edward Oates

Army, Other Regiments, Reading Blue Coat School, Registered War Grave

Sydney Edward Oates
Quarter Master Serjeant
3rd Battalion Suffolk Regiment .

War Plot

Oates SE photo screen wall

Sydney Edward Oates was the third son of late Mr & Mrs William Thomas Oates of “Moreton” Talford Avenue, Reading. Quartermaster Sergeant Oates died at Katesgrove Hospital.  In the Reading Standard of  August 11. 1917 he was described as “a gallant soldier and a keen, conscientious church worker”.  He was spoken of in glowing terms by his officers.  He had had a varied and honourable military career. It appears that his untiring energy in the early days of the war may have contributed to the illness which was the cause of his death.

Sydney Oates was born on Jan 12th 1870 in the parish of St. Giles and was educated at the British school, later going to the Blue Coat School.  Leaving school in 1884 he went into the ironmongery trade with Mr. Hawkes, High St.  He enlisted in the Suffolk Regt. on 7th Oct. 1889 and saw service in Egypt from 1889-1891, India from 1891-1892, and at home from 1893-1896 at Colchester and Warley.  He was on reserve for  3 years and served again with his regiment in the South African War, 1899-1902.  He remained in South Africa for some years after his 12 years service and on returning to England worked for Ocean Accident & Guarantee Corp. HQ in London.  He re-enlisted with the Suffolks on Nov. 12th 1914 and was stationed at Felixstowe.  He was invalided out in 1916 and passed away “bravely and patiently” as a pensioner.

The funeral took place with full military honours.  Chief mourners included Miss Gibbs & Pte. H. M. Oates, Canadian Expeditionary Force and his sisters.  Their were a large number of floral tributes.

His major wrote when he had to leave the battalion through ill health”  I should like to take the opportunity of thanking you for all the good work you have done from the time you came up until you were most unfortunately incapacitated….I personally owe you a deep debt of gratitude for your loyal and devoted services during a period when failure meant disaster….I know how grieved you are at being unable to see the war through, but rest easy on that score.  You have done your duty”.

His name is entered on the screen wall in the War Plot. His extensive service records are available on Ancestry UK.

David William Leaver, Herbert Charles Hyde, Leonard Lever Hyde

Army, Berkshire Yeomanry, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Reading Blue Coat School, Reading University College, Somme, St. Batholomew's Church

David William Leaver
Trooper 70781
“B” Squadron 1st/1st Berkshire Yeomanry

Division 57

Leaver DW photo  CIMG2131

 David William Leaver is commemorated on a large headstone along with Leonard Leaver Hyde and Herbert Charles Hyde.  The family headstone has details inscribed on both sides of the stone and the three boys were obviously related.

David Leaver was the only son of Alice and Alfred Leaver of 52, Cumberland Road, Reading.  He was 22 when he died on 25th November 1917, of wounds received in Palestine. He is commemorated on the St. Bartholomew’s Church memorial.

At the announcement of his death his parents wrote:
“A bright spring time, a few days of summer and then the end.
Grief is for those left behind, not for them.”

He is buried in Ramleh Convent Garden Cemetery, Palestine.  William Victor Ross Sutton, son of Readings Mayor at the time, was killed in action  twelve days before him and is buried in the same cemetery.

The ‘In Memoriam‘ of 1918, Standard 23rd November, quotes the lines of the famous remembrance poem –
“He shall not grow old as we who are left grow old,
Age shall not weary him, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember him.”
Mother and Dad

In loving remembrance of “Our Dave”, a very dear brother and friend,
He passed beyond our touch, beyond our care,
But never beyond our love and prayer,
Mabel and Maggie

And in 1919 a friend remembered:
In loving memory of my dear pal (Dave), died of wounds at Ramleh, Palestine.
Two years have passed, I do not forget him,
For his memory to fade from my life like a dream;
But lips need not speak when the heart mourns sincerely,
For grief often dwell where it seldom is seen.
Bert.

Herbert Charles Hyde
Rifleman 535423
1/15th London Regiment,
Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles.

Hyde HC photo

Rifleman Herbert Hyde was killed in action in France Sept. 1st 1918 aged 23. He was the eldest son of Henry Herbert and Ellen Florence. Hyde, of 62 Orts Rd.  An ‘In Memoriam’ states he was-

One who never turned his back,
But marched breast forward;
Never doubted clouds would break;
Never dreamed, though right were worsted,
Wrong would triumph.

Herbert Hyde is buried in Rancourt Military Cemetery , Somme.  Grave location A. 3.  Rancourt was in an area of severe fighting during the allied offensives in the late summer of 1918.   The village was taken by the British the day Herbert Hyde was killed.

 Leonard Leaver Hyde
Lance Corporal 534506
1/15th London Regiment,
Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles. 

Hyde LL photo

Leonard Leaver Hyde was on board HMS “Aragon“ going to join the BEF in Palestine when the ship was torpedoed in the Mediterranean on December 30th 1917. Leonard was aged 19. He was the brother of Herbert Charles Hyde and second son of Henry & Ellen Hyde.

He had  joined the army on Jan 29th 1917.  He was educated at St. Stephen’s and Reading Blue Coat School, and was a clerk at the GWR Goods office Paddington.

Herbert and Leonard are both commemorated on the Reading University College memorial.