Category Archives: Battlefield Areas

Harold Guille

Army, Canadian, Commemorated name/s, Graves, Other Regiments, Reading School War Memorial, Ypres

Harold Guille
Private 442387
7th Battalion Canadian Infantry (British Columbia Regiment)

 Divison 19

Guille H photo  CIMG2094

Harold Guille  was the son of Mr. & Mrs. George C. Guille , of 28, Castle Crescent, Reading. The 1901 census indicated that Harold had two older sisters and a step brother. At the time Harold was fifteen and no occupation is given for him. Further information pertaining to Harold Guille is held in Canadian records and 1911 census however, the CWGC register indicated that he was the husband of May Guille, of Nelson, British Columbia.   He was killed in action on the 15th April 1916, aged 31. 

Harold Guille is buried in Railway Dugouts Burial Ground (Transport Farm), near Ypres. Plot IV. Row E. 30.  The burial ground was started during 1915 and during 1916 and 1917 the farm was usedby Advanced Dressing Stations. After the Armistice the burial ground became a concentration cemetery.

 The Second Battle of Ypres drew to a conclusion on 24th May 1915.  With it the intense action of the conflict assumed a lower key but, although quieter in many respects, men were still suffering and dying in terrible circumstances.  Shelling, mining and raids of one sort or another took their toll of lives.  Actions to straighten out the line took place at Bellwaarde Ridge and Hooge Château in July 1915, the British used a massive mine and the Germans used “liquid fire” to reek destruction.  Working parties moved through sickening mud and slime, all around the smell of unburied dead.  Later in the year the Battle of Loos began and ended, here the British used gas for the first time.  Gallipoli was finally evacuated in January 1916, Verdun was attacked in February and the “Big Push” planned for the summer.  Around Ypres the shelling, mining, counter mining, trench raids, snow, rain, frost and lice were endured by both sides.  On both sides men died in abominable circumstances.

Frank Griffin

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Passchendaele

Frank Griffin
Lance Corporal PLY/1800(S) (Plymouth Battalion?)
Royal Marine Light Infantry

Division 38

Griffin F photo

 

Frank Griffin was the son of Cornelius and Annie Griffin, of 53, Mount Pleasant, Reading; and husband of Ethel Annie Griffin, of 45 Highgrove Street, Reading.  Frank Griffin died leaving a small daughter called Doris.  He is commemorated on the kerbs of the family grave. Frank was killed in action on 26th October 1917, aged 32. 

 The 26th October 1917 was the first day of what came to be known as the Second Battle of Passchendaele.   On this day the British and their allies improved their positions from Passchendaele to Poelcapelle.   Matrix tells us that the attack began at 5.40am.  On either side of the Menin road the British 7th and 5th Divisions were frustrated by marshes.  The Australians and Canadians took their objectives moving off in a mist that became a heavy rain as the day progressed.  The Canadians had 70% casualties.  Poelcapelle means church in the bog and it was in a bog that the British fought.  Several days later New Zealand troops came upon the remains of the Northumberland Fusiliers and Durham Light infantry lying in rows where they had been mown down by German machine guns as they had made their advance on the first day of the battle.

 Frank Griffin is buried in Poelcapelle British Cemetery. Location XVI. F. 10 

This cemetery was made after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from other cemeteries and from the battlefields.  The great majority of the dead fell in the last five months of 1917, particularly the month of October.

The 1911 census shows us that Frank, now aged 26, was as yet unmarried. He was living wth his parents and other brothers at 3 Mount Pleasant, Silver Street. His father and olderbrother Henry worked at the biscuit factory, Frank and his younger brother Edward were house painters and his brother Ernest was a butcher. Another brother, Albert was not living at home.

Tom Gray and Fred Gray

Army, Registered War Grave, RFC / RAF, Royal Berkshire Regiment, Somme
Gray bros photo
Tom Gray
Air Mechanic II  33053
Royal Flying Corps		 Fred Gray
Lance Corporal 19990
1st Royal Berkshire Regt.

Tom  and Fred Gray were the sons of T. and Elizabeth Gray of 31 Zinzan Street, Reading.

Tom Gray is buried in a registered war grave and commemorated on a CWGC war pattern headstone.  Grave number 3686A.  He died of meningitis, at the time referred to as spotted fever on the 15th March 1917.  Tom Gray was the husband of L. Gray and was aged 33.

TGray grave

Fred Gray is commemorated on his brother grave on a scroll stone.  The inscription states “Killed on Somme”.  Tom is also commemorated on the scroll stone which finished with the words “FOR KING AND COUNTRY”.

Fred was killed by a machine gun whilst taking trenches on November 14th 1916.  The Battle of Ancre, the 4th phase of the Somme battle, had begun the day before and Beaumont-Hamel was captured during the offensive.  The Somme Battle finally came to and end on 18 November 1916.

Fred Gray is buried on the Somme in Munich Trench British Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel, location B.II.

 FGray grave

 

 The small cemetery, which holds about 100 graves, was started in January 1917.  Munich Trench was captured on the 11 January 1917 by  V Corps and the cemetery was originally known as V Corps Cemetery No.8.  The burials of those who took part in the last phase of the Somme battle were carried out in the spring.  Although Fred Gray’s body laid out on the battlefield throughout the winter months the ground was not fought over and this enabled the remains to be identified.  Many casualties of the Somme battles were posted as missing and their bodies never found.   Another Reading man, George E. Thatcher is also buried in Munich Trench British Cemetery and a small stone bearing his initials has been found in the Reading Cemetery.