Category Archives: Western Front

Edwin James Prior

Alfred Sutton School War Memorial, Army, Other Regiments, Passchendaele

Edwin James Prior
Private 41177
9th Battalion Norfolk Regiment

Prior EJE photo

Edwin James Prior died 15th April 1918 aged 19 years.  He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing panels 34 to 35 and 162A.

Edwin Prior was the brother of Arthur James Prior of 65, Foxhill Road, Reading.  Information on the caption of a photograph printed in Berkshire and the War, gives details of him belonging to the South Staffordshire Regiment and attached to the Lincoln Regiment.  An address of 10, High Street, Belston, Staffordshire is given.  The caption goes  on to state that he was twice wounded and was late of Caversham.

More details about the German Spring Offensive around Ypres have been given in the biography of Reginald Newport.   Edwin Prior, although in a different regiment would have experienced similar difficulties.  By 11th April Armentieres had been evacuated by the British and Haig issued this famous speech to his men “…..Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement.  With our backs to the wall….each one of us must fight to the end.”

On the 15th April, the day that Edwin Prior died, the bloodily won ridge of Passchendaele was evacuated and the British divisions withdrew to a line around Ypres which approximated to that of 1915.  The British were below full complement and the new men, replacing those lost in Third Ypres, were young and incompletely trained, although they fought bravely. (Martin Matrix Evans – Passchendaele)  The different details about regimental information for Edwin Prior may be due to the fact that he was taken into different units to make up the numbers at various times.

J W Porter

Army, Arras, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments

J W Porter
Bugler 9137
“G” Company 2nd Battalion
Oxford & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

Division 69
Extension

Porter W photo

J W Porter was the son of  Mr and Mrs F. Porter of Reading and the husband of Emily Walker (nee Porter) of 449, Brooklyn Street, St. James’, Winnipeg, Canada.  He died of wounds on 14th September 1915.  He is commemorated on his parents grave, number 18168. 

Bugler Porter is buried in Chocques Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France.  Location Plot I. D. 99.

 Chocques  lies north west of Bethune near Gonnheim.  From late autumn 1914 to the end of the war Chocques was occupied by the British.  The graves in Plot I were on men who died of wounds in No. 1 Casualty Clearing Station which was posted in the village.  The officers were buried in Plot V.  The casualties would have been fighting on the Bethune front.

Reginald William Poole

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

Reginald William Poole
Lance Corporal 14353
8th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment.

 Division 26
Left side of drive

Poole RW photo

Reginald William Poole was the  son of William and Anna Poole, of “Tetbury”, 95, Church Road, Tilehurst, Reading.  The 1911 census indicates that William Poole was a Carpenter and Joiner. Reginald was a gardener / nursery man, his sisters worked in the tailoring / dressmaking trades. Anna Poole had given birth to eight children five of whom survived.

Reginaldwas first reported missing and then killed in action on the 25th September 1915.  This was the first day of the battle of Loos.  Reginald Poole has no known grave and is commemorated along with 20,000 others who have no known grave on the Loos Memorial.   The 8th Royal Berkshires are named on panels 93 to 95.

In the Reading Cemetery Reginald is remembered on his parent’s grave on a small stone vase. He was 22 when he died.