Category Archives: Ypres

Thomas Pocock

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Passchendaele, St. Batholomew's Church, Ypres

Thomas Pocock
Private 43323
2nd/9th Battalion Manchester Regiment

 Division 39

Pocock Th photo  CIMG2001

Thomas Pocock  lived at 44, Amity Road, Reading.  He was the son of Thomas and Mary Pocock. The 1911 census indicates that he had two older brothers Albert and Harry and one younger brother Ernest Frank who were living in the family home. His mother had given birth to ten children of whom seven were living. Thomas was a labourer at the biscuit factory like his father and older brothers. He was aged 22 when he was killed in action on 9th  October 1917.  This day marks the beginning of the third phase of the Third Battle of Ypres.   

Passchendaele by Martin Matrix Evans describes the scene that Thomas Pocock would have been a part of: “..troops moved up in anticipation of the attack of 9 October.  Lieutenant P. King described the horrors of the march up from Ypres.  ’It was an absolute nightmare.  Often we would have to stop and wait for up to half an hour, because all the time the duck boards were being blown up and men being blown off the track or simply slipping off – because we were all in full marching order with gas masks and rifles, and some were carrying machine guns and extra ammunition’.

At 5.20am on 9 October the 2/9th Manchester Regiment and the 2/4th East Lancashire (both 198 Brigade, 66th Division) advanced against Dab Trench.  Fire from Hamburg Redoubt, the strong point in the centre of the obstacle, cut the men down and an attempt by the 2/5th East Lancashire to take it failed.  King describes it.  ‘We went over this morass, straight into a curtain of rain and mist and shells, for we were caught between two barrages.  Well, of course we lost direction right away….The machine gun fire from the German positions was frightful…. We could hardly move because the mud was so heavy that you were dragging your legs behind you, and with people being hit and falling and splashing down all round you, all you can do is keep moving and look for some form of cover’.”

 It is not therefore surprising that Thomas Pocock has no known grave.  He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial Panel 120-124 and 162-162A and 163A

John Piggott Wheeler

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Reading School War Memorial, Ypres

John Piggott Wheeler M.C.
Major – “D” Battery,
92nd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery

 Division 32

CIMG2175 CIMG2176

 

John Piggott Wheeler, was the youngest son of Samuel Wheeler and Elizabeth Wheeler of, 30, Craven Road, Reading.  He is commemorated on a family memorial in the corner of Division.  John Wheeler was born in June 1892, and entered the Royal Artillery from the Territorial Force in August 1914. 

 He received his M.C. for “Conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty.  He, with great coolness and disregard of danger, reorganised his drivers and teams, and succeeded in getting his guns into action under the most trying conditions”.

He was killed in action on 29th October 1917, aged 25.   He is buried in Vlamertinghe New Military Cemetery, Belgium, location Plot 9, Row E. Grave 23.

Walter Pearce, Ernest Albert Pearce and Charles Edward Pearce

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

Walter Frank Pearce
Private 19987
8th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment

 Division 64
Extension

Pearce WF photo Pearce bros Rcem commemorat Pearce EA photo

Walter Frank Pearce and Ernest Albert Pearce are commemorated on a large family headstone.  Their parents were the late William Edward and Phoebe Pearce of 22, Chesterman Street,  Reading.  The 1911 census indicates that Wlater, then 17, was working as a confectionary apprentice. Ernest was a grocers assistant. Other family members included William 29 and Charles 19 who were drapery porters; sisters Hilda 22 and Florence 14 no occupation is given for either sister.

Walter died of wounds at Cambrai as a prisoner of war on 21st September 1916, aged 22.  He is buried at Porte de Paris Cemetery, Cambrai.  Location I.B.7.

 Ernest Albert Pearce
Private Royal Berkshire Regiment

 Ernest was killed in action at St. Julien on August 16th 1917 aged 27.  He was part of a Trench Mortar Battery.  The allied forces had on that day attacked along a nine mile front north of the Ypres – Menin Road crossing the Steenbeek River.  The ground was torn by the barrage and the low water  table made No-Mans Land a morass.   All the objectives were captured and the British reached Langemarck and half a mile beyond however,  the  Germans pressed the British back from the high ground won earlier in the day.

Charles Edward Pearce was also injured in the war.
Private 43978
7th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment

Charles service record indicates that he enlisted in February 1916 and was posted to the Royal Berkshire Regiment. However he was serving with the 7th Warwickshires when he wasinjured. He suffered from trench feet in the winter of 1916 and received gun shot wounds to his neck and chest on 5 December 1917. It is believed that he recoved from these injuries and was able to walk again. He signed his own medal receipt and it is believed that he survived the war.