Category Archives: Royal Berkshire Regiment

J J Cox and David J Cox

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

J.J. Cox
Private 35577
4th Battalion Yorkshire Regt

 J. J. Cox was the  brother of David Cox, of 273, Oxford Road, Reading.  He is buried in a registered war grave, number 16584, and commemorated on the kerbstones that surround it.  This grave has sunk somewhat and J. J. Cox is also remembered on a special memorial in the War Plot.   The author has been unable to find any information about his war service or from what he died.  He was aged 20.

David J Cox
Private 17272
8th Royal Berkshire Regiment.

Cox D photo dbImage[1]

David Cox is commemorated on his brothers grave.  He was killed in action on the 25th September 1915, the first day of the battle of Loos.  His body was never identified and he is commemorated on the Loos Memorial to the Missing, Panel 93 -95.  He was aged 26.

The author believes that the brothers were the sons of James  and Mary Emily Cox who at the time of the 1911 census were living at 219 Southampton Street, Reading. The full name of David being David John, he was the eldest child and J.J. being James Joshua, he was the youngest. There was another brother, Robert and two sisters, Gurtie and Violet. The census form had several odd spellings. The CWGC records for both David and James had no family details.

Cyril Wilson Cox

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

Cyril Wilson Cox
Private 3148
1st/4th Royal Berkshire Regiment

 Division 66
Extension

Cox CW photo

Cyril Wilson Cox lived with his mother at 3. Prince of Wales Avenue, Reading. He had been born in Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire and was educated at Newbury Grammar School.  Before the war Cyril Cox worked for Messes. Nicholas Estate Agents, Station Road, Reading.  We are told that  his colleagues held him in high esteem. 

He enlisted on 4th October 1914 and was killed in action seventeen months later on 14th August 1916.  He is named on the kerbs of the family grave and commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, Pier and Face 11D, having no known grave. 

The following is a description from the official history of the action in which Cyril Cox lost his life:

 Around the time of his death his battalion was stationed near to the 5th battalion Royal Berkshire Regt., who on the night of the 12th August 1916 took the enemy by surprise and seized “Ridge Trench” on the crest of a hill which was part of the Thiepval ridge.   On the morning of the 13th August the 5th Battalion were relieved by the 4th Oxfords with the 1st/4th’s in support.  At 9.30p.m. the Oxfords gave notice that the Germans were trying to bomb them out of the trench.  Two platoons from the Berkshire battalion, numbers1 and 2, were sent forward to supply the Oxfords with bombs.  “D” company was put under the command of the Oxfords Colonel with a further supply of bombs.  The Oxfords were due to lead a counter attack but it was the 1st/4th’s who were eventually given the command to lead.  In a manner typical in the chaos of the war, a barrage planned for before the attack did not take place and later, without detailed orders, the Berkshire men tried to cross the 250 yards of open ground facing the Germans.  The Germans, relatively safe and protected in their trenches, were able to shoot unhindered on the advancing lines of men.  The image is one frequently painted during the Great War.  For the survivors of the attack, shelter was poor but fortunately a British aeroplane responded to signal flares and as a result British artillery opened up on the German trenches and the remaining Berkshire men were able to get to safety.  Losses for this flawed action were very high, 140 casualties from the ranks including 59 killed and missing.  Petre in his history of the regiment, comments in his account that, “Failure is often more heroic than success, and these loyal men fought and died with great honour”. 

 The Reading Standard 23rd September 1916 published an extract of a letter sent by a friend to his mother about his death. 

“ It is my sad duty to inform you that Cyril’s death occurred on the morning of August 14th when our company attacked.  Almost immediately he was wounded by a bullet which affected his spine and paralysed him from the waist downwards.  He lived about two hours and was able to have the wound dressed.  From the first I think he knew his end had come.  He passed away repeating his prayers.  Words fail to express what I feel about his death.  It seems hard that a life of such promise should have ended so suddenly, but his destiny as well as ours is in the best hands.”

Alfred John Chapman

Army, Royal Berkshire Regiment

Alfred John Chapman
Private 7091
3rd Battalion /   later 1st Battalion
Royal Berkshire Regiment.

 Grave Location – Tilehurst St. Georges Church burial ground.

Chapman A J

Private Alfred John Chapman, was born in Streatley and enlisted at Churn.  He lived at 44, Coley Terrace, Reading.

The Reading Chronicle Jan 15 1915  (pg. 5 col. 5) published an account of his  military funeral.  Private Chapman had several years service in the militia being called up as a Reservist at the outbreak of war.  He received a shrapnel wound in November 1914,  whilst at the front and was for a time at the Cambridge hospital.  On returning home his health gradually gave way and he died on 5th January 1915.  Several members of Private Chapman’s regiment attended the funeral and the coffin was borne by 6 comrades, a firing party was in attendance..

A report in the Reading Standard Jan 16th 1915 stated that the funeral took place in the Reading cemetery.   However, the grave number was unknown and several searches of the burial records later revealed that he was not in fact buried in the Old Reading Cemetery but in Tilehurst.

The 3rd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment

 At the outbreak of war in August 1914 the Depot of the Royal Berkshire Regiment and the HQ of the 3rd Battalion (Special Reservists) was at the Barracks, on the Oxford Road in Reading.

The duties of the Depot and the 3rd Battalion staff centred around the call up and the provision of clothing and equipment for all the Army Reservists  of the Regiment.  In total about 1,800 were called up and 540 despatched to the 1st Battalion.  Alfred John Chapman was almost certainly one of these men.

The remaining 1260 men went to Cosham, then Fort Purbrook, later they were based at the Victoria Barrack, Portsmouth and in November 1917 the Battalion was sent to Portobello Barracks, Dublin.  During the war Petre tells us that the 21,605 officers and men passed through the 3rd battalion.  15,533 were sent to the BEF.  The remaining 7,000is accounted for by transfers, discharges, deaths, desertions and demobilisation.

After the war men from all battalions of the Regiment were sent to the 3rd Battalion for demobilisation.  This included returned prisoners of war.  Demobilisation was a complicated affair and there were many grievances.  “Pivotal men” i.e. those called up late in the war, largely employers, were let out first so that other men could have jobs to go to.  However, the fighting men thought that they were being let out under false pretences.   However, in Dublin, there was reportedly an excellent mess and occupations like football, cross country running, boxing, ceremonial parades and picnics in Phoenix Park kept the men busy.  A added occupation involved the rounding up members of Sinn Fein.  The 3rd Battalion was “disembodied” on 5th September 1919.