Category Archives: Battlefield Areas

John Bryan Bishop

Abbey Baptist Church, Alfred Sutton School War Memorial, Army, Arras, Other Regiments

John Bryan Bishop
Lance Corporal 4653
1st Battalion Honourable Artillery Company

 Bishop JB photo

John Bishop was the son of Mr. Thomas Bryan Bishop and Mrs. Louisa Bishop, Calne House, 31. College Road.  In the family he was referred to as Jack. He was described as a young man of fine character and a good soldier who was well liked by all.   He was associated to both the King’s Road Baptist Church and also the Baptist Church  in Kingston-upon-Thames where he worked. He was killed in action at Gavrelle on 24th May 1917, aged 23 years and is buried at Mindel Trench British Cemetery, St. Laurent – Blangly on the outskirts of Arras. The grave location is C. 18. 

 The Chronicle of June 22nd 1917 outlined the circumstances of his death when it published a letter sent to Rev. R. Gordon Fairbairn of the King’s Road Baptist Church, by a mutual friend.  Jack “was killed the last time he was up in the trenches.  I made enquires and found he never suffered at all, and that although he lived for a few minutes he was unconscious all the while.  He was in charge of a party which went to draw rations.  They were just taking them from the wagon when a shell burst in the village, and Jack had a bad wound in his leg, and before the doctor arrived he was dead.  They did, of course, everything that was possible, but an artery was broken.”

 Gavrelle was part of the Vimy battle field and a German front line position in April 1917.  It was during the early actions described by Rose Coombs in “Before Endeavours Fade” that  John Bishop lost his life.  “Here was the scene of the attack by the 63rd Royal Naval Division* on April 23rd 1917 and their magnificent defence for many days thereafter through innumerable counter-attacks.  It was held until the 56th London Division, which stubbornly defended it in March 1918, were overwhelmed on the 28th.  The 51st Highland Division recaptured it on August 27th and it was occupied by the 8th Division”.   

(*The 1st HAC battalion was attached to the 63rd Royal Naval Division at the time of John Bishop death.)

A  further reminder of the struggle which took place on the battle fields around Arras is also located in St. Laurent- Blangly, here lies the large German cemetery where over 31,000 men are commemorated, many in a mass grave.

Fred Bird

Alfred Sutton School War Memorial, Army, Australian, Dardanelles, Somme

Fred Bird
Lance Corporal 102
24th Battalion Australian Imperial Force. 

 Bird Fred photo Bird Fred name

Fred Bird has no known grave, his name is commemorated on the Australian National War Memorial at Villers Bretonneux.  The small town had been well behind British lines until April 1918 and the German Spring Offensive.  The town was taken by the Germans on April 24th 1918 but recaptured the same evening by the Australians.  Twelve hundred Australians lost their lives in the battle.  The war memorial bears the names of all the Australians missing on the Somme battlefields. 

 From the top of the memorial  tower the Cathedral spire at Amiens, away to the west,  can be seen on a clear day and during spring and autumn months the trenches of the battlefield are outlined in the chalky soil.  It is not known what action Fred was involved in when he was killed.

 Fred Bird had enlisted at the age of sixteen. A comment under the photograph published in “Berkshire and The War” states that he had been in the Scouts for several years and was a “piper” in the YMCA  He was also a native of Newtown.  Fred had reached the rank of Lance Corporal and had fought in the Dardanelles and France.  He was reported missing in November 1916 this was later confirmed as killed in action, he was in his 19th year. 

  “In Memoriam” The Standard 24th November 1917 gives the following details,  the youngest son of the late George Bird of Reading and Mrs. Bird of Mentone, Melbourne, and brother of Mrs. Wilkinson, Recreation Rd. Tilehurst.  In addition is a poem

 He heard the call of his country,
Far o’er the sea he came,
On Britain’s Roll of Honour
You’ll find the brave boy’s name.
The path of duty is the way to glory.

The 1911 census indicates that Fred and his family lived at 15 School Terrace, Newtown. His sister Ivy, then 15, was two years older than Fred. Fred’s father, George, was aged 72 and his occupation was given as Army Pensioner and Biscuit Factory Labourer. Fred’s mother, Kate was aged 56. Fred and George had been married for sixteen years.

Arthur James Beechey

Army, Commemorated name/s, Dardanelles, Reading Blue Coat School, Reading School War Memorial

Arthur James Beechey
Private Portsmouth Battalion,
Royal Naval Division,
Royal Marine Light Infantry

 Division 41

Beechey AJ photo

Arthur James Beechey, is commemorated on a family memorial.  Grave number ?

He was the son of Mr and Mrs A. Beechey, of 141, Southampton St. Reading.  He was killed in action during the Dardanelles campaign on 1st May 1915.

 Arthur Beechey is buried at Beach Cemetery which is situated on what was known as Hell Spit, at the southern part of Anzac Cove.  Beach Cemetery was used from the day of the Landing at Anzac, almost until the Evacuation.  British forces had landed on the peninsula on the 25th April 1915 and fierce fighting had taken place along the coast ever since.   

The plan was for the Royal Naval Division to launch an feint attack further up the coast at Bulair.  This was carried out and observed by the German Commander of the Turkish forces.  The aim of the attack being to cut off the peninsula from the rest of Turkey.  It was here that von Sanders heard of the attacks around the peninsular. 

At Anzac Cove the landing of Australians and New Zealand forces had taken place.  The fighting was continuos with Lt. Col. Mustapha Kemel sending reinforcements to the front to prevent further allied advances.  Frequently the frenzied attacks meant  certain suicide for the Turkish soldiers.  The Anzacs defended their positions in shallow trenches and gullies.  Although they stood their ground the Anzac forces were shaken by the ferocity of the almost continual attacks and the strain was beginning to show when relief came on the 28th April in the form of the Chatham and Portsmouth Battalions of the R.M.L.I. and the next day by the Deal Battalion.  The following account is taken from Gallipoli by Robert Rhodes James, page 170. 

      “’Chatham was in fair shape,’ one officer has written frankly; ‘Portsmouth had been entirely rebuilt [after Antwerp] from bottom to top.  And Deal was entirely composed of recruits and the left-over officers from the Fleet.  And none of us had had any battalion training at all.’  The delight of the exhausted Anzacs was changed to consternation when they beheld the lines of pith-helmeted, pale and bewildered young men-‘children under untrained officers and I feel very sorry for them’, Birdwood wrote in his diary- toiling up the ravines, each Marine laden with blankets, waterproof sheets, ammunition and rations as well as his rifle.  ‘Such boys they look,’ Malone wrote in his diary; ‘still they must be sturdy.’  The Marines had expected to take over a reasonably established trench system…. A heavy thunderstorm, which drenched the Marines as they trudged up the slopes to the isolated pot-holes which constituted the Anzac firing line, filled their cup of misery.  ‘I have now been given some so-called Marines and Naval Battalions,’ Birdwood wrote despairingly, ‘who are so as I can see nearly useless.  They are special children of Winston Churchill, immature boys with no proper training, and I am quite afraid of them giving me away someday.’

                   No doubt, the Marines were also unimpressed with the Anzacs.  ‘Everything was chaos,’ writes one, ‘and nobody knew where anyone was….one met Australians all over the place, wandering around, drinking tea, and having pot shots at anything they saw.’  In spite of heavy losses-amounting to nearly 50 per cent – largely due to their own inexperience, the Marines held on with admirable tenacity until the reorganisation of the shattered Anzac battalions was completed.”

  And so, in these conditions Arthur James Beechey, aged 18, lost his life.  He was an old boy of Reading School and worked for Messers Dymore Brown and Son until he enlisted in July 1914.  His father was in the Army. (Reading Standard July 3rd 1915)