Category Archives: Other Regiments

William Lewington & Francis James Lewington

Army, Other Regiments, Registered War Grave, Royal Berkshire Regiment, Ypres

William Lewington
Private 2973
4th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment.

Division 29

 W Lewington photo F Lewington Photo

Private W. Lewington was twenty years of age (a report in the Reading Standard 14th November 1914 states 19 years).  He died, in Maidenhead hospital, after a short but painful illness according to the report.  The caption of the photograph states that this was blood poisoning. William Lewington was  in training at the time.  An article in the Reading Chronicle 15th January 1915, quoted on the next page, stated that a beam had fallen on his hip.

William was the second adopted son of Mr W.J.Giles of  68 London Street, Reading. As “Wilton the Magician” William was a favourite performer at local amateur and benefit concerts.

He was given a military funeral and his  burial was the first of the WW1 burials.  He shares his grave with his cousin.

Francis James Lewington
Rifleman 11397
1st Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps. 

Francis James Lewington was an ex-employee of the  “Chronicle” and then served in the regular army  going to France with the BEF in August 1914.  He was wounded in the left shoulder whilst fighting at Ypres early in January 1915 and invalided home with the bullet wound.  A  letter about his experiences around and was published in the Chronicle on January 15th 1915 in  which he outlined his experiences.

       “ I went out on August 12, and one of the first sights I saw was a church burning at Ladmark.  [sic] (Langemark authors note)  For 21 days we were in trenches at Soissons, but we made a charge, on which occasion I received a bullet wound before going very far.  It was a clean-cut wound.  I had a good time on board the hospital ship coming home.  The bullet was not extracted for a week, when it was removed by a sister at Tidworth. 

“On September 13 our brigade captured about 300 Germans.  They surrendered under the white flag, but while those in front were surrendering, they were fired on by their fellow countrymen behind, the latter making off.

“While we were in trenches near Super (?) a sad fate befell a company of Cameronians.  They were in a cave, but the Germans shelled it, and buried nearly the whole of them.  For several nights afterwards their comrades were removing dead bodies.

“The 1st Berks have fought splendidly.

“We take a great deal of interest in football, and I was very pleased with Reading’s run.

The article also refers to the death of his cousin William Lewington, and that he had two more cousins at the front with 2nd  Royal Berks.; they had previously served in India.

On Nov. 13th 1916 he was wounded in the back and  ultimately  died at Leeds on Dec. 13th 1916.   A newspaper of the time when reporting his death states – ” The blow is all the more severe to his mother by the fact that he wrote cheerfully home the day before he died to say that an operation to extricate several bullets from the region of his spine was successful.  A change for the worse, however, soon became apparent, and death occurred within a few hours”. 

Francis James Lewington  was 21and the only son of Mrs Lewington   His was a full military funeral attended by members of his family and regiment, a Bugler  played “The Last Post”.

Walter John Levy

Army, Commemorated name/s, Loos, Other Regiments, Somme

Walter John Levy
Private 29006 14th Battalion formally 22342 K.O.S.B.
Highland Light Infantry

 Divison 18 

Levey WJ photo

Walter John Levy is commemorated on the grave of Martha and Philip Levy who died in 1937 and 1938 respectively.  They are were the parents of Walter Levy.   The Berkshire family history Society classification for the grave is given a 18H3.  Cemetery Register number 12394.

A picture of a Private Levy (there is an error in the spelling of the name) gives the address as 12, Francis Street, Reading.  The 1911 census indicates that Philip Levy was a carter at the Corn Merchants (possibly Sutton Seeds) and the Walter a tin worker at the tin factory (Huntley, Borne and Stevens),other family members worked at the biscuit factory (Huntley and Palmers). Walter was 19 at the time of the census.

Walter Levy is recorded on the grave as being killed in action on 21st October 1916, aged 25.  He is buried in the Philosophe British Cemetery, Marzingarbe, Pas de Calais.   Location I.D.37.  The cemetery is situated between Bethune and Lens.  Graves from the Loos battlefield were brought to the cemetery after the Armistice.

Originally the 14th Battalion was a Bantam battalion but it ceased to have this designation in early 1917. The battalion landed in France in July 1916 as part of the 40th Division. The division was formed between September and December 1915. Serving mainly on the loos battlefront the division was also involved in the battle of Ancre in 1916 on the Somme. There were a number of fierce attacks between including between 1 October and 11 November 1916 including one on 21 October the day Walter Levy lost his life, aged 24 years.

Further research is required to find out about the action in which Private Levy was killed.

A J Levey

Army, Other Regiments, Registered War Grave

A. J. Levey
Private PO/1814(S)
Royal Marines Light Infantry
R.M. Battalion Royal Naval Division

Division 34

CIMG2124CIMG2125

 

 A.J. Levey was the husband of Agnes L. Levey and lived at 18, Belle View Rd., Tilehurst Rd., Reading.  He died on the 21st October 1918 aged 33.  His wife only survived him by six years and is buried in the same grave. His is a CWGC headstone, grave number 4634.