Category Archives: Ypres

Albert Edward Searing, Amos Thomas Searing & Samuel Searing

Army, Commemorated name/s, Graves, Royal Berkshire Regiment, Somme, Ypres

Division 56

CIMG2135

In 1911 Sarah Searing was living at 101 Watlington Street, Reading. She lived with her daughter, also called Sarah(31) and her three sons Albert (27), Amos(30) and Samuel(26).
All three were labourers, Albert worked as a bricklayer’s labourer, Amos worked at the tin factory and Samuel at the biscuit factory. In 1901 the family lived at 88 Watlington Street,The County Tap, and Sarah the mother is described as the innkeeper and her daughter as barmaid.

All three men are commemorated on their mothers grave but only their initials are given. It has taken some energy to establish thier identities.  Sister Sarah’s details are only given on the CWGC register for Albert and then no first name is supplied: Miss S. E. Searing, of 31, Cortis Avenue, Broadwater, Worthing.  Tragically all three brother have no known graves and there commemoration in the cemetery rendered them almost invisible.

Albert Edward Searing
Private 201975
1st/4th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment

 Albert Searing  He died on 13th August 1917. The CWGC register states his age as 33. but it is believed, using census information, that he was 35.  He is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, Panel 45.  Strangely the war diary for the 1st/4th indicates that they were at Dambre camp and the battalion spent the day practicing for the forth coming attack which was due to begin on the 15 August. The record for the
13 August states two killed and seven wounded. There are no other details but the circumstances seem strange.

 Amos Thomas Searing
Private 33662
2nd  Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment

 Amos Searing  died on 2nd April 1918. Born about 1881 he was thought to be  about 37 on his death.  He is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial to the Missing, Panel 56 & 57.

 Samuel Searing
Private202225
2nd/4th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment

Samuel Searing  He died on 22nd August 1917 it is thought that he was about  32.  He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing, Panel 105, 106 and 162.

 

Charles Victor Schofield

Alfred Sutton School War Memorial, Army, Other Regiments, Reading University College, Ypres

Charles Victor Schofield
Private 26744
3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards

Schofield CV

Charles Victor Schofield was the son of Richard and Emma Schofiled. The 1901 census has the family living at 7, Donnington Road, Reading. The family then consisted of both parents and their four children. Richard 22 was an architects assistant, Elizabeth 19 a School Board teacher, Edgar 16 a shoe repairers assistant and Charles, the youngest, who was then 9 years old. In 1911 the family were living at 135, London Road and only Charles and Edgar were living at home. Charles was a gasfitter and his brother a photographic printer.  The photograph indicates a differect address for Charles by the time he enlisted –  69, Donnington Gardens.   By the time CWGC registers were compiled after the Armistice his father, Richard William Schofield, had moved to 359, Elgar Rd.

 No service record is available for Private Schofield.The CWGC register indicates that he died of wounds on 20th December 1917 and is buried at St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, location P.V.D. 3B.  It is not known how or when he was injured however, the British advance on Cambrai had started on the 20th November 1917.  The Grenadier Guards had been involved in severe fighting during Third Ypres and their Division was involved in fighting at Bourlon Wood and the counter offensive at Cambrai. Rouenwas the home to severalmilitary hospitals and Privat Schofield would have experinced the full range o  Army Medical Corps. services from battle front to base hospital before he died.

It has taken much research to establish the full name of Private Schofield who for a long time was only known to me by his initials.

Ralph George Pusey

Alfred Sutton School War Memorial, Army, Other Regiments, St. Batholomew's Church, Ypres

Ralph George Pusey
Guardsman 16604
Number 4 Company,
1st Battalion Grenadier Guards

Pusey RG photo Pusey RG name

Ralph George Puseywas the only son of Frank Howard and Sarah Jane Pusey of 134, Cumberland Road. He had one onlder and two younger sisters. He had attended the Wokingham Road School (now Alfred Sutton Primary School) and his name appears on their war memorial. The 1911 census indicates that at age 15 years he was a baker’s errand boy, his father was a labourer at the biscuit factory.

Ralph is believed to have been in the regular army when war was declared on 4th August 1914. He spent August and September in training, leaving England for Zeebrugge on the 5th October as part of the BEF (British Expeditionary Force).  By the time Pusey and his regiment had arrived the original BEF had already been in action.  After marching for almost two weeks the BEF engaged in the Battle of  Mons on 23rd August.  When it was realised that the British troops were out numbered, an orderly withdrawal, starting on 24th August and lasting many days was begun.  The BEF marched, south.  On the 26th August some battalions fought a holding operation which became known as the Battle of  Le Cateau.  By September 6th the BEF had marched, in the heat of summer, over one hundred miles to the Marne.  There they fought a four day battle which ended with the British pursuing  the Germans who were moving northwards.  Heavy fighting then took place around the Aisne and Albert on the Somme.  When the Grenadier Guards landed in Zeebrugge on October 7th the Germans were occupying an area around Ypres.  Belgian soldiers were in action around the Yser canal and the British had been in battles at Aubers, Armentières, Neuve Chapelle and Warneton, in what was later named the Battle of Flanders.

 When the Grenadier Guards arrived in Belgium they went by train and route march, stopping at various points along the way, to arrive at Ypres on the 14th October.  One stop saw them billeted near a dye works and issued with velvet in lieu of blankets!  When they arrived at their sector of the front they set up out posts between, what in time would be the famous or infamous, Menin and Messines Roads. The first Uhlans, cavalry soldiers of the German Sixth Army were sighted.  The Guards dug  defensive positions at Zandvoorde on the 16th October and moved forward to Kruiseecke on the 17th October.   There the battalion began an attack on the 19th  October but were soon ordered to withdraw.  On the 20th October the Germans attacked the Guards positions in the afternoon, coming within 200 yards of their line. Ralph Pusey was probably killed during this attack.  The 19th October 1914 marked, what historians later referred to as, the start of the First Battle of Ypres. 

 Ralph’s parents were initially informed that Ralph was wounded and reported missing on the 24th October.  This information was published in the Reading Standard 2nd January 1915. Further detail stated that he was believed to be a prisoner of war.  However, his body was never found and he had no known grave.  Ralph Pusey was 19 years old. 

Two memorials were constructed to commemorate the men who were lost in this and the subsequent battles of Ypres.  The Menin Gate, carries 54,896 names of men lost in Ypres before 1916 and the near by memorial at Tyne Cot which commemorates another 35,000 soldiers with no known grave, killed after 1916.