Category Archives: Other Regiments

Leslie Thomson

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Reading University College, St. Laurence's Church, Ypres

Leslie Thomson
Rifleman 1877
16th Batt. London Regt. Queen’s Westminster Rifles 

Thomson L photo Thomson L cem mem Thomson L grave

Leslie Thomson was the second son of Mr Walter and Mrs Thomson, hairdresser, of High Street, Reading and 18 Lorne St. Reading.  He was educated at Kendrick School and Christ’s Hospital (where he was in the Officers’ Training Corps), at the outbreak of the war he was employed in the Army and Navy stores.  He at once enlisted, and went with his battalion to Hemel Hemsted.  In November the battalion went to France, where they were involved in trench work.  On one occasion Leslie had a narrow escape when brining in a wounded comrade.

The Standard  Jan 16th 1915 published an extract of a letter from Walter to his father with the headline,

 “80 yards from the enemy”

Leslie Thomson was in the firing line with his regiment when they exchanged greetings with the enemy on Christmas day 1914.

“They were a rather weedy lot, although they included some fine American Germans.  Not a shot was fired all day.  In the morning we had a Communion Service under the most picturesque circumstances.

We have moved into new trenches now and are only about eighty yards from the enemy.  We are too near each other to be able to employ artillery, but of course we watch each other very closely”.

He was in action on the 18th March 1915 in the trenches near Houplines when a rifle grenade, fired by the Germans burst just behind him.  He died in hospital the following day from his wounds. He was 22 years old.

His mother also received the usual letter informing her of his death:-

Dear Madam,

I regret that it is my painful duty to have to inform you of your son’s death.  He died this morning of wounds received in action yesterday.  It is very sad, as he was such a nice boy, and well liked by all, and it is a great loss to his company, as he was so keen; also to the battalion.  It may be a little consolation to you to know where his body was placed at rest.  His funeral took place today.  The Commanding Officer and some of his comrades were present.  The Rev. H. M. Webb-Peplow performed the ceremony.  The effects found on his person will be forwarded as early as possible. 

Believe me to remain in you great loss,
Yours in deepest sympathy,
A. N. Davis, S.A.

Leslie Thomson is buried in Cite Bonjean Military Cemetery, Armentieres.  Grave location IX.C.17.  His funeral was described by Major Tyrwhitt in a letter to his parents.

“Your son was buried by the chaplain to the brigade in the hospital cemetery, and I was fortunate to be able to attended the service with a number of his comrades.  His grave will be marked by a simple wooden cross, bearing his name and that of his regiment, and a careful record of its position will be kept at our headquarters.  Your son was always a bright, and cheerful man, and such a good soldier that I shall personally much miss him, as will many of his comrades to whom he had endeared himself.”

Forty two of his comrades signed a letter to his mother, each expressing heartfelt sympathy with her in her loss, and stating:

”We shall miss him very much, as he was a good soldier, one who could be relied upon to do his duty in the face of any odds, and he was always very willing to do all he could for the comfort of his fellow men.”

He is commemorated on the family grave with the words:

“He gave his heart to God, his life for his King and Country”.

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.

Alfred Leadbetter

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Somme

Alfred Leadbetter
Sergeant 7023
1st Hampshire Regt.

Division 82
Extension

Leadbetter A photo Leadbetter A Rcem com

Alfred Leadbetter  was the son of John and Sarah Leadbetter, of Stratfield Turgis, Basingstoke.  He was the husband of Annie Maria Chambers (formerly Leadbetter) of 37, Amity Road, Reading.   He is commemorated on his son’s grave, number not yet known *.

Alfred Leadbetter was killed in action on the 1st July 1916.  This was the first day of the Somme Battle. Martin Middlebrook in “The First Day on the Somme” states ‘Every battalion was supposed to enter a daily account of its activities in its War Diary, this becoming the official record.  The 1st Hampshires suffered so severely that no one could be found at the end of the day to describe, reliably, what had happened.  Its War Diary entry for 1 July reads:

Our casualties in officers amounted to 100% and was also heavy in other ranks. (Public Record Office WO95/1495)’

That was all that could be found to describe the battle in which the Hampshires lost twenty-six officers and 559 men.  The destruction of the battalion was so complete nothing was known of what really happened to it.  Among the total was Alfred Leadbetter who has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing Pier and Face 7B and 7C.