Category Archives: Regiments

Oliver Luther Hawkins

Abbey Baptist Church, Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Reading School War Memorial, Ypres

Oliver Luther Hawkins
Second Lieutenant
3rd Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment.

 Division 29

Hawkins OL photo  CIMG2096

Oliver Luther Hawkins was the son of William Slade Hawkins and is commemorated on the family grave on the corner of the division next to the boundary wall.  He died of wounds during April 1915.  The date of death on the cemetery headstone is 23rd April 1915, that of the CWGC register 26th April 1915.  He was aged 22.

Oliver Hawkins is buried at Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery, North France. Location II.E.28.   Hazebrouck, is a town about 56 kilometres from Calais and is easily reached.  From October 1914 to September 1917 Casualty Clearing Stations were posted at Hazebrouck.   Although, from September 1917 to September 1918, enemy shelling rendered the town unsafe for hospitals.

It is likely that Oliver Hawkins had gone through the initial parts of the usual evacuation process of the wounded but succumbed to his injuries before reaching a base hospital.  The Second Battle of Ypres was taking place at the time of his death. 

The 1901 census indicates that the family lived at 97 London Road, his father was a private secretary. He had one sister and three brothers. The 1911 census indiates that he was a border in School House, Reading School.  At Reading School Oliver was a popular sportsman and gifted student.  He won the Lord Roberts prize and distinctions in cricket and football.  Oliver studied for a time at Marburg University, Germany and in 1913 went to Jesus College, Cambridge.   Whilst at Cambridge he joined the OTC and obtained a commission. The headstone of the family grave bears sad testimony to the early deaths of several family members.  His father died in November 1915. 

Francis John Harper

Army, Berkshire Yeomanry, Registered War Grave

Francis John Harper
Private 2351
1st/1st Berkshire Yeomanry

Division 24

CIMG2179

Francis J. Harper was aged 32 when he died.   He had been a member of the Berkshire Yeomanry for 12 years, resigning some years before the war at the rank of sergeant.  When war broke out he re-enlisted as a trooper (the equivalent of Private)  and  would have been entitled to be promoted because of previous experience.   He contracted a severe chill at Bear Wood whilst training and was brought to the Royal Berkshire Hospital where he died on the 6th January 1915  from double pneumonia.

The military funeral was attended by 140 officers and men of the Yeomanry, employees of Mr J. White, Castle St., staff from Whitley Special School, his brother Mr W. Harper of 102 Radstock Rd. himself an old Bucks. Yeoman,  his sister and widowed father.  A detachment of  men from Bear Wood followed his flag draped coffin to the grave, over which the customary three volleys were fired.

There was a wreath from the children of Whitley Special School, whom he used to drive to and from school.  The Standard reported that the  children had the kindest regard for Mr Harper, who when he enlisted received a letter from the physically defective pupils saying –  

Dear Mr. Harper,

We are all very glad to hear you are going to the front, but we are very sorry to have to say good-by to you.  We hope you will someday return safely, and come back to drive our carriage once more.  We have collected just a little money and we hope you will buy something you like with it.  The socks are knitted by the girls.  Thanking you for all your kindness to us. 

Yours sincerely the Children of P.D.SIDE 

P.S.  Will you please let  us know where you are stationed  so that we may write to you sometimes.

Francis John Harper is interred in a Registered War Grave with a war pattern headstone.

Albert Edward Haines

Army, Other Regiments, Registered War Grave, Ypres

Albert Edward Haines
Private 201694
1st/4th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment

Division 79
Extension

Albert Edward Haines was the youngest son of Walter and Annie Haines. He is remembered on the kerbs of his parents grave although the lead lettering is now badly damaged and the actual wording very indistinct.  Albert died 17 August 1917.

Haines AE grave

 

Albert Haines is actually buried in New Irish Farm  Cemetery Location X.E.I.  This cemetery was begun in August 1917 and used until November 1917, and again from April to May 1918.  By the time of the Armistice it contained 73 graves in Plot 1.  After the Armistice it was used as a concentration cemetery taking graves from smaller cemeteries and also bodies from the battlefields.  There are now 4,500 casualties commemorated in the cemetery. The body of Albert Haines was initially buried in one of these smaller cemeteries at the time of his death and moved after the Armistice.  

Albert Haines would have played a part in the action (The Battle of Langemarck),  outlined below which was part of the Third Battle of Ypres.   On the 16th August the British, on the northern flank of the battlefield,  took the village of Langemarck, although the they were subjected to strong counter attacks. On the southern flank, the most important, there was failure. (Martin Matrix Evans)  It is not known whether Albert Haines was killed in action or if he died of wounds.*

  For the 1st/4th’s their time in Flanders was one of their worst.  It seemed to the battalion that they were given impossible objectives and reinforced with inadequate reserves.  In the attacks, at dawn on the 16th August, the 48th Division made little progress and they were reduced to hanging about under heavy shell fire moving into gaps against threatened counter attacks.  The battles against pill boxes, gun pits and fortified farms were slow.  Each objective was taken methodically by bombers rushing, as best they could through a ground of liquid mud in full kit, and throwing bombs through loop holes this was followed by concentrated machine gun fire.  “A” company was hit by the opening barrage which killed their captain and wounded their other officer but they managed through the day to repel some small attempts of counter attack.  “B” company also experienced difficulty getting through the barrage and spent most of the day in support of “A” company and without actually coming into contact with the enemy lost forty men.  “C” company took part in fighting around the Langemarck road and lost all their officers and fifty men.  “D” company did not move until the barrage had eased and spent most of the day in support of the Buckinghamshire battalion, they lost thirty men.  By the end of the day one third of the 1st/4th Battalion’s strength had been lost.   (From “The School,The Master, The Boys and The V.C” thestory of the  Alfred Sutton School War Memorials )