Category Archives: Battlefield Areas

Charles Edwin Moores Weller

Army, Canadian, Commemorated name/s, Passchendaele

Charles Edwin Moores Weller
Private 255768
46th Battalion Canadian Infantry (Saskatchewan)

Division 26 

CIMG2165 CIMG2164

Charles Edwin Moores Weller was the  son of Charles Weller, of 127, Queens Road, Reading.  He is commemorated on the headstone of the grave of Fanny Briden and Charles Weller.  Grave number 8711. Charles was the eldest son of this marriage.  The inscription, which is now very feint,  states that he was killed in action at Passchendaele on 26th October 1917, aged 37.

 The 26th October marked what was officially designated  the 2nd Battle of  Passchendaele. The action began at 5.40 in the morning.  British divisions were either side of the Menin Road.  Along the Passchendaele ridge and the Passchendaele to Broodseinde road were the 46th Canadians and the 18th Australian Battalions. They moved forward in the early mist and later steady rain.  The Canadians and Australians took there objectives.  However,  the Canadians paid heavily with 70% casualties and because two different units had been used in the capture of Decline Copse, and each left it to the other unit to consolidate, the Germans were able to mount a successful counter attack and they were not ejected for a further 24 hours. 

 Charles Weller was first reported missing and his father had many appeals for information published in local papers, it was not until March 1918 that he was confirmed as killed. 

Charles Weller’s body was lost and therefore his name was commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, Panels 18-26-28. His name is listed in the Canadian Book of Remembrance.

William Edward Davis Wellbelove

Army, Commemorated name/s, Dardanelles, Other Regiments, Reading Blue Coat School

William Edward Davis Wellbelove
Driver 616069
20th Bde.  Ammunition Column
1st/1st Berkshire Royal Horse Artillery

 Division 40

William Edward Davis Wellbelove, is commemorated on a family memorial.  Grave number 8790.  He was related to Joseph Davis AIF, who is commemorated on the same headstone.  The grave number is 8790.  The Berkshire Family History classification if 40C11.

William was the eldest son of William Edward and Dora Wellbelove, of 30, Crescent Road, Reading.   He was an old boy of the Reading Blue Coat School.

William died in Number 17 General Hospital Alexandria, after contracting malaria and developing pneumonia.  He died on the 29th October 1918, aged 23. He is buried in the Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt.  Location E.99. 

 Alexandria was a great Anglo-French base camp and hospital centre.  Casualties were brought to Alexandria from the islands and men came to the camps in Alexandria when on leave from campaigns in the desert.

John Weeks

Abbey Baptist Church, Army, Commemorated name/s, Dardanelles, Other Regiments

John Weeks
Second Lieutenant
11th Battalion  Devon Regiment attached to Hampshire Regiment

 Division 8

Weeks John photo Weeks J Royal Edward ship

John Weeks home address was 39, Northumberland Avenue, Reading.  He joined the army in Exeter  in September 1914 and was quickly awarded a commission. Census evidence suggests that he was a law clerk in 1911 and boarding with a family in Exmouth. His father was William Weeks; his name is on John Weeks attestation papers.

 John Weeks was 26 years of age when he was lost at sea in the “Royal Edward” disaster, 13th August 1915.  The transport ship was carrying 1,380 officers and troops and a ship’s crew of 220 officers and men, when it was sunk by a German submarine in the Ægean Sea with great loss of life.  Only 600 were saved.  The disaster was particularly tragic, because so many lives were lost.  The men had spent a long time in training.  In the report the men were described as “burning to meet the foe”.  The ship’s destination was  the Gallipoli peninsula.  Details outlining the history of the ship and how it was sunk can be found on Wikipedia.

 John Weeks was buried in Syra New British Cemetery, Greece.  The grave location II.A.5.  The cemetery is on an island in the Cyclades, about 75 miles south-east of Athens.  The cemetery was made in 1921, to take the scattered British War graves from the islands of the Cyclades.  In total there are 111 War Graves registered. 

The commemoration on the grave in the cemetery has been recorded by the Berkshire Family History Society but the author has mislaid the details of the headstone inscription.