Category Archives: Passchendaele

Ernest A Brown and William Frederick Brown

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Passchendaele, Royal Berkshire Regiment, Somme, Ypres

Ernest A. Brown
Corporal 203874
2nd Battalion Oxford & Bucks. Light Infantry

William Frederick Brown
Private 201425
5th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regt.

 Division 15

 Brown EA and WF photo

 Ernest and William Brown are pictured with their brother in Berkshire and The War.  Gunner L. H. Brown, served with the Machine Gun Corps.,  he probably survived the war.  Ernest and Frederick are commemorated on the headstone of the grave of their grandfather.  They were the sons of William J. and Ellen Brown, 651, Oxford Rd. Reading. 

CIMG2187

 

 The Standard September 15th 1917 printed the notification of the death of Ernest Brown. He was killed  during the 3rd Battle of Ypres.

“In everlasting memory of my dear husband, Corporal. E. A. Brown, Oxford and Bucks. Light Infantry killed in action August 16th 1917.”   

 Oh, how I longed to see him
After victory won,
But God thought it best to take him
Before the fight was won.
Sleep on dear Ern, in your lonely grave,
A grave I may never see,
But as long as life and memory last
I will remember thee.” 

Ernest Brown is buried in New Irish Farm Cemetery, Location XI.F.13.

 Frederick’s wife Francis Violet Brown posted the notification of his death.  Her address was given as 31 Manchester Rd., Reading.   Frederick was killed in action, on the 5th April 1918.  His death occurred  during the Battle of Albert, he was aged 28.  At the time the British were being driven back by the Germans who had launched their major offensive in the spring. 

No loving friends stood round his bed,
No loving mother closed his eyes,
No roof above his brave young head,
Only France’s cloudy skies;
No bell to toll the mournful tale,
With sad but kindly tone,
But we know he’s gone to a better vale,
His Heavenly Father’s throne.

 William Brown has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial Panel 56 & 57.

 

George Abery

32nd or 35th Div. Signal Co. RE, Alfred Sutton School War Memorial, Army, Passchendaele

George Abery
Driver 69183
35th Signal Company Royal Engineers

ABERY G

George had seen twenty three months of active service when he died of wounds on November 29th 1917, he was nineteen years old.  His unit was the 35th Signal Company of the Royal Engineers.  This unit was raised in Reading and was held in high esteem by the town.  George was the son of Mr and Mrs W. Abery of 54, De Beauvoir Road, Reading.  He is buried in Dozinghem Military Cemetery, Westvleteren, Poperinge West-Vlaanderen Belgium.  Grave XV. E. 12. 

Poperinge was used by troops for rest and relaxation from the Ypres battle front.  Casualties from the front would pass through the area on the way to trains and home to “Blighty”.  Dozinghem was one of a trio of cemeteries, the other two being Bandagem and Mendingham, named by British troops to  sound like local Flemish names, which served the casualty clearing stations and field hospitals around Proven which was the British Army rail centre.  We do not know exactly the extent of the wounds George received but about the time he was injured one of the worst battles of the whole war was taking place at Passchendaele.  For over three years, the Germans held the ridge, until, on November 6th 1917, the rubble which had once been the village was captured by the Canadian Corps.   Many of his colleagues from the school were less lucky and had no known graves, instead they are commemorated on the walls of the Tyne Cot Memorial to the missing on Passchendaele ridge which is on the site of the largest Commonwealth Military cemetery any where in the world, Tyne Cot British Military Cemetery.