Category Archives: Somme

Ernest George Edward Adams

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

Ernest George Edward Adams
Pioneer 103144
32nd Division Signal Company Royal Engineers

ADAMS EGE

Ernest was the only son of Mr and Mrs Ernest Adams of 97, Addington Road.  Mr. Leonard Sutton, once the Mayor of Reading, raised both the 32nd and 35th Signal Companies, initially based at Wantage Hall.  He appealed to the young men of Reading to enlist and one such person was Ernest Adams.  Born in Reading he had attended Redlands and Wokingham Road Senior schools.  He had been employed in the Berkshire Insurance Committee offices.   Ernest was a well known and keen footballer, he played for a local team, the Corinthians, in the position of goal keeper.   

Ernest was only 17 years old when he was killed.  Theoretically he was too young to have served abroad and it is not clear when exactly he enlisted.  It is possible that he gave miss-information to the recruiting sergeant as many young men, eager to do their bit, often did.  With his father and four uncles also serving in the army Ernest was obviously keen to join them.  However, in spite of his age, we are told that he excelled at signalling and was with a sergeant engaged in new aerial signalling before he was killed. He must have been serving for some time in order to have gained sufficient training and experience.  Ernest was with his battalion on the Somme when he was killed on the night of 4th July 1916.  He would have experienced the allied shelling in the week before the ‘big push’ and would have been aware of the gains and losses made in those first few days.  He met his death, only a few weeks before his eighteenth birthday, when a shell burst near him, he lived for only three minutes after being hit.  The same shell injured many others.  

Ernest is buried at Blighty Valley Cemetery, Authuile Wood, the Somme.  Grave location I. B. 2. 

The cemetery was begun in July 1916 and used continuously until November 1916. The cemetery originally contained 212 graves in Plot I; it was not used again until after the Armistice when 784 graves were brought in from the battlefields and smaller cemeteries to the East, most of whom fell on the 1st July.  Authuile Wood, near the River Ancre,  was situated right at the heart of some of the most severe fighting which took place during the July 1916 Somme battles,  the missing dead of those battles being commemorated on the near by Thiepval Memorial to the Missing.  A cheery face looks out from his photograph and the “In memoriam” of 1917 refers to him as “Ern” a “dear and only son”.

William Henry Achurch

Alfred Sutton School War Memorial, Army, Berkshire Yeomanry, Other Regiments, Somme

William Henry Achurch
2nd Lieutenant 
2nd/5th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment 

 ACHURCH WH

William Henry Achurch was the eldest son of Mr and Mrs Achurch, of 90 Cardigan Road, Reading.   He died of wounds received on the 6th December 1917, aged 25.  The Reading Chronicle of the 14th December 1917 carried an obituary.  The article states that he had been badly wounded in the chest.  The British launched a surprise attack at Cambrai on the 20th November 1917.  Ten days later the Germans attacked the salient and penetrated the British lines.  This was followed a few days later by a withdrawal from the area around Bourlon Wood and the eventually checking of the enemy.  The Battle of Cambrai officially ended on the 7th December 1917.  William Achurch is buried at Rocquigny-Equancourt Road British Cemetery, Manancourt, Somme, France.  Location VI. D. 14.

Rocquigny and Equancourt are two villages in the Department of the Somme, some 13 kilometres north of Peronne and 12 kilometres south-east of Bapaume. Rocquigny and Equancourt are approximately 8 kilometres apart and the Rocquigny-Equancourt British Cemetery lies about halfway between the two villages on the north side of the road just west of the crossing road from Etricourt to Ytres.  Etricourt was occupied by British troops at the beginning of April, 1917 during the German Retreat to the Hindenburg Line. It was lost on the 23rd March, 1918, and regained at the beginning of September. The cemetery was begun in 1917, and used (mainly by the 21st and 48th Casualty Clearing Stations, posted at Ytres) until March, 1918.

William Achurch joined the Yeomanry soon after the outbreak of war.  He was transferred to the Worcesters, promoted to the rank of Sergeant whilst on the Somme.  Later he was commissioned to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, returning to England to train in Oxford.  He had been back at the front for four months when he was killed. He had seen a great deal of fighting.

William Achurch was a member of Wycliffe Chapel, a Sunday School teacher and Scout Master.  Before the war he worked for Messrs. Sutton and Sons.

Arthur George & Charles William Thear

Army, Arras, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Registered War Grave, Somme

 Arthur George Thear
Private 2613
13th Kensington Battalion London Regiment

 AGThear photo  CIMG2145

Arthur George Thear was the  son of Charles and Carrie Thear,  of 12, Victoria Street, Kings Road, Reading. He died of wounds and is buried in a registered war grave number 16097.  His name is commemorated on the scroll headstone of the family grave.

Arthur Thear joined up very soon after the war was declared but as the following newspaper article shows he had hardly been at the front any length of time before he was seriously injured.

The Chronicle April 9th  1915:

“ Private Arthur George Thear, 13th (Kensington Batt.), wounded at Neuve Chapelle, died on Saturday 3rd April at Wandsworth Hospital, and was buried on Wednesday at Reading.  He was only in France two weeks before being wounded.  The toes of one foot were shot off, and the other foot was altogether blown off.  Previous to joining the Army he was a footman in the service of Lord Ilchester at Holland House Kensington W., and at the funeral there was a wreath from the Countess of Ilchester, besides wreaths from many of his friends.

 

 

Charles William Thear
Lance Serjeant 2496
Argyle & Sutherland Highlanders 

Charles W Thear photo

Charles William Thear was the  son of Charles and Carrie Thear,  of 12, Victoria Street, Kings Road, Reading. He was killed in action on 5th August 1916 aged 30.  He is buried at Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval. Plot XVI. K. 10.

He is  commemorated on the scroll headstone of his brothers grave. The inscription on the scroll states that Charles Thear was killed in action and buried at Martinpuch.  This may have been the case but after the Armistice a number of smaller cemeteries and battlefield graves were concentrated in larger cemeteries.  Caterpillar Valley is such a cemetery and has been chosen by the Royal Mail to feature on one of its Millennium stamps.

On August 5th 1916 the Somme battle was still raging and a particularly important objective was High Wood on the way to Martinpuch.  Thousands of men died in a number of attempts to capture the wood so that they could press on the Martinpuch, situated near the Albert to Bapaume road.  It was not until 15th September in a major offensive involving tanks that this objective was finally taken.  Charles Thear was killed in one of the unsuccessful earlier attacks.