Category Archives: Army

Ernest John Pocock MM

Army, Graves, Royal Berkshire Regiment

Ernest John Pocock
Private 132144 (200893) 8th Battalion
Royal Berkshire Regiment

Division 2
Left side of drive

EJPocock photo EJPocock book grey

Ernest John Pocock died of 11th January 1975 aged 75 years.  He is commemorated on the same grave as William Morris Sawyer and is included in this document by virtue of his war service.

The 1911 census indicates that he was the son of Arthur and Ellen Pocock and had nine siblings.

Ernest Pocock lived at 55, Sherman Place, Reading.  He was awarded the Military Medal for bravery and devotion to duty whilst serving as a stretcher bearer.  The announcement was made on 20th October 1919.

Thomas Pocock

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Passchendaele, St. Batholomew's Church, Ypres

Thomas Pocock
Private 43323
2nd/9th Battalion Manchester Regiment

 Division 39

Pocock Th photo  CIMG2001

Thomas Pocock  lived at 44, Amity Road, Reading.  He was the son of Thomas and Mary Pocock. The 1911 census indicates that he had two older brothers Albert and Harry and one younger brother Ernest Frank who were living in the family home. His mother had given birth to ten children of whom seven were living. Thomas was a labourer at the biscuit factory like his father and older brothers. He was aged 22 when he was killed in action on 9th  October 1917.  This day marks the beginning of the third phase of the Third Battle of Ypres.   

Passchendaele by Martin Matrix Evans describes the scene that Thomas Pocock would have been a part of: “..troops moved up in anticipation of the attack of 9 October.  Lieutenant P. King described the horrors of the march up from Ypres.  ’It was an absolute nightmare.  Often we would have to stop and wait for up to half an hour, because all the time the duck boards were being blown up and men being blown off the track or simply slipping off – because we were all in full marching order with gas masks and rifles, and some were carrying machine guns and extra ammunition’.

At 5.20am on 9 October the 2/9th Manchester Regiment and the 2/4th East Lancashire (both 198 Brigade, 66th Division) advanced against Dab Trench.  Fire from Hamburg Redoubt, the strong point in the centre of the obstacle, cut the men down and an attempt by the 2/5th East Lancashire to take it failed.  King describes it.  ‘We went over this morass, straight into a curtain of rain and mist and shells, for we were caught between two barrages.  Well, of course we lost direction right away….The machine gun fire from the German positions was frightful…. We could hardly move because the mud was so heavy that you were dragging your legs behind you, and with people being hit and falling and splashing down all round you, all you can do is keep moving and look for some form of cover’.”

 It is not therefore surprising that Thomas Pocock has no known grave.  He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial Panel 120-124 and 162-162A and 163A

John Edward Plumley

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments

John Edward Plumley
Pioneer WR/20556
103rd Road Construction Company
Royal Engineers.

 Division 72

John Edward Plumley was the son of Mr John Edward and Mrs Mary Anne Plumley, of 141, Great Knollys Street, Reading.   He is commemorated on the family grave. Number 17820.   The Berkshire Family History Society classification is 72C15.

The 1911 census indicates that he was a tin plate worker. (It is possible that he worked for Huntley, Bourne and Stevens the biscuit tin manufacturers). His service records indicate that when he attested his medical classification was given as B2, it is believed that he was had a hearing deficiency.  The tragedy for the parents, brothers and sisters of John Plumley was that the war had come to an end John had survived, after serving 18 months in France, only to die six days later on the 17th November 1918 of bronchio pneumonia , contracted as a result of active service.  His personal effects were later sent to his family.

Plumley personal effects

He was aged 28.  The following poem accompanied the notification of death.

Our home is filled with sorrow
Our aching hearts are sad,
For the war has done its crucial part
And robbed us of our lad.
Do not ask if we miss him,
While we toil in pleasure dim;
No morning breaks or night returns
But what we think of him.

 John Plumley is buried in Don Communal Cemetery, Annoeullin, Nord, France.  Location I.B.26.

Don is a town 12 kilometres south-west of Lille.  Annoeullin was held by the Germans from early in the war until shortly before the Armistice.  John Plumley will have been treated in one of two Casualty Clearing Stations, Number 15 came to Don on the 25th October 1918 and remained until January 1919, Number 32 came at the end of November and left at the end of December 1918.  Soldiers from both hospitals were buried in the Communal Cemetery.  Later bodies were brought in from neighbouring fields.