Category Archives: Army

Albert Henry West

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

Albert Henry West
Private 201566
2nd/4th Royal Berkshire Regiment

Division 40

West AH photo West AH mem name

 Albert Henry West, is  commemorated on a family memorial with the words “Dear son Dick, Killed in Action March 21st 1918 aged 19.

 A CWGC search reveals only one West killed on that date.  It is assumed that they are one and the same person. This was confirmed by an Ancestry UK search.  Relatives have begun a family tree which contains the known information.

Albert was the third son of George Alfred West and Jane West nee Palmer. His brothers were George and Thomas. He had an older and a younger sister called Florence and Gertrude. Sadly Florence also died in 1918, in October, as a result of the flu epidemic.

The 21 March was the first day of the German Spring Offensive. This was a time of rapid movement by the German forces and as a result it would have been almost impossible to remove the dead from the field of battle. Albert Henry West has no known grave and is listed among the missing on the Pozieres Memorial Panel 56 and 57.

Joseph Henry Wells

Army, Other Regiments, Registered War Grave

Joseph Henry Wells
Private S/2374 Depot
7th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders

Division 26 

 Wells J photo  CIMG2181

Joseph Wells was the  son of Charles and Jane Wells, of 36, The Mount, Reading.  It has not been possible to find background information.

Joseph Wells is buried in a registered war grave, number 16244, and commemorated on the kerbstones that surround it.  His name also appears on the special memorial in the War Plot because his grave had essentially been lost. It is hoped that the CWGC will be able to erect a headstone in the near furtue.

 Joseph Wells died of wounds on 21st August 1916  He was aged 17.  Newspaper reports stated that he had died in an English hospital and was brought to Reading for his funeral.  It is likely that he received his wounds during the Somme battle but further research is required to confirm this as fact.

L. V. Wellman M.M. & D.J. Wellman

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

L. V. Wellman M.M.
Corporal 155th Field Company
Royal Engineers.

 Division 35

d j wellman D J Wellman

Corporal L.V. Wellman, Vic,  is buried in grave number 13847 which is marked by a CWGC war pattern headstone.  He was one of three brothers to serve in the war.  His brother Jack,  was killed in action July 16th 1916. 

Lance Corporal D. J. Wellman
 3614 ‘A’ Company
2nd/4th Royal Berkshire Regiment He is buriedat Laventie Military Cemetery, La Gorgue. Location II. C. 17.  He had only been at the front for two months and was in the signalling section  of the 2nd/4th Royal Berkshire Regiment.  He had worked at Huntley and Palmer’s until January 1916.   

Brother Tom served in India and they had a sister Dolly.

 The death of  Vic was particularly hard to bear as the short poem with the notification of death in the Standard 8th November 1919 indicates.  In loving memory of our dear and eldest son, L. V. Wellman, who passed away on October 31st, 1919, after suffering form gas poisoning. Although just recently discharged, has served 3yrs in France with RE; also won the MM.

The war was over, victory won,
How gladly we rejoiced
To think that our Vic, would soon be home,
Having his duty done.
But, alas, our joy was but in vain,
He only came home to leave us again;
Not to that battlefield where our Jack was slain,
But to Heaven where he will find rest without pain.

From his loving Mum and Dad.

The sorrow continued  although the Wellman’s were typical of their stoic generation.

Std. July 17th 1920 – In loving memory of Lance Corporal D. J. Wellman of 51 Weldale St. Reading – KiA July 16th 1916 – From mother and father, sister and brother.

Some may think that we forget him
When at times they see us smile;
But they little know the sorrow
Which that smile hides all the while.

 

When a brother is good and kind,
It’s then that you miss him most;
And although you are gone from us, dear Vic,
You’ll always be in our mind.
From his only sister Doll and brother Tom in India