Category Archives: Regiments

Hermon Tostevin & Fred Tostevin

Army, Navy, Registered War Grave, Royal Berkshire Regiment

Hermon Tostevin
Sergeant 7856 Depot,
Royal Berkshire Regiment

 War Plot Division 71 & 72

Tostevin H photo Tostevin F says S photo

Hermon Tostevin was the son of Annie and Charles Henry Tostevin, of 21 Elm Park Road, Reading.  He died on November 16th 1917 aged  32.  His name is recorded on the screen wall in the War Plot. The cause of death is not known nor full details of his military career. In 1901 Herman, then 16,  was an inmate at Kenniston Reform School, Thorndon, Suffolk. Ten years later, in 1911, he was serving with the 2nd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment in India. His occupation is given as soldier and clerk.

 Fred Tostevin was the brother of Hermon. Fred served with the Devon Regiment. He was reported missing and later drowned on the HMS Arcadian on 15th April 1917, he was aged 24.  His name can be found on the Mikra Memorial  in Greece.

Fred Tostevin had work for Huntley Bourne and Stevens for ten years before the war.  The 1911 census indicates that an older brother Henry also worked at the tin factory and younger sister Winnifred worked at the Huntley and Palmer’s biscuit factory. (The caption refers to “S” Tostevin)

 In Memoriam in the Standard November 16th 1918 stated:

Loving sons, brothers kind,
Beautiful memories left behind.

In 1919:

At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.

From their loving Mother, brothers and sisters.

George E. Thatcher

Army, Commemorated name/s, Royal Berkshire Regiment, Somme

George E. Thatcher
Private 18098
1st Royal Berkshire Regiment

 Division 40

Thatcher GE photo  CIMG2200

George Edward Thatcher, known to his friends and family as Jack,  was the husband of
Mrs Sarah Thatcher (nee Clarke), of 6, River Road, Reading.  He is commemorated on a small scroll stone, on the grave of one of his children, number 10263.  Only the initials G.E.T. and Jack are written on the headstone but a CWGC search revealed his full name and details.  The 1911 census indicates that he was a tin solderer at the tin works and he had three children – Lily, Cyril and Evelyn. Sharing their five room family home were his sister in law and three brothers in law.

 George enlisted on 25 March 1915, serving first in the 3rd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment before moving to the 1st Battalion. He arrived in France in December 1915.  He was killed in action on the 14 November 1916, when the battalion were involved in the later stages of the Somme battle.  He was killed taking a trench.  Jack Thatcher is buried in Munich Trench British Cemetery, Beaumon Hamel, location C 31.  The cemetery contains many men who were killed in the same action and Jack lies near Fred Gray who is also commemorated in the Reading Cemetery and who died on the same day.

 George Thatcher was 37 when he was killed. The Chronicle of 8th December 1916 records that Jack was “killed instantly”, that he worked at Huntley, Bourne and Stevens before the war.  He left a wife and five children. The author has visited Munich Trench Cemetery which is rather out of the way on Redan Ridge and the visitors book which at the time went back to 1975  revealed that family members visited the grave in1992 and 1997.