Category Archives: Services

Ernest David Filewood

Commemorated name/s, Western Front

Ernest David Filewood
Sapper 167527
81st Field Company  Royal Engineers

Division 2

Filewood ED group

Known to me only by his initials E.D.F. for many years it has been possible to discover not only rank and regiment from the CWGC website but also details of his service history from Ancestry UK including his full name.  His initials appear on a small flower holder in the Reading Cemetery and there is an inscription stating that E.D.F died a prisoner of war.  The Berkshire Family History Society classification is 2E3.

CIMG2144

In July 2016 this web site was contacted by Sapper Filewood’s great great nephew, Dean Fostekew,  who has been able to supply further information. Sapper Filewood is standing in the back row of the photograph, second on the right and hat-less.  Ernest David was the youngest of five children of David and Henrietta (nee Rose) Filewood. His siblings were Eliza, Phoebe, Fred and George. Phoebe was Dean’s great grandmother.

Sapper E.D. Filewood died on the 23rd October 1918.  Aged 30 years.  He is buried in the Tournai Communal Cemetery Extension, Tournai, Hainaut, Belgium. The grave location is II.J.33.  The area of Tournai was in German hands for most of the war years 23 August 1914 until 8 November 1918 and is a concentration cemetery for small numbers of burials made in the surrounding area as well as a later casualty clearing station and hospital. There are many prisoner of war graves including a large contingent of Russian graves.

 By trade E.D.F. was a monumental mason.   He attested in December 1915 and was posted to the Royal Engineers in May 1916. E.D.F. was posted missing on 10 April 1918 but sent a post card home on 20 April 1918 indicating that he was a prisoner of war. His war record indicates that his death was due to cardiac weakness during his capture. 

E.D.F. was married to L. V. (Lizzie Violet nee Saunders) on 18 January 1913 and they lived at 44, Edgehill Street, Reading.  He left a daughter called Phyllis born on 23 June 1915. His wife remarried becoming Lizzie Violet Elphee and it is that name which appears on the CWGC register.

 

 

Harold Haynes Fenner and Percy Geddes Fenner

Army, Commemorated name/s, Navy, Other Regiments, Passchendaele, Reading University College

Division 67
Extension

Harold Haynes Fenner
K/3236 Stoker 1st Class HM S/M Royal Navy

350px-HMS_E20[1]

Harold Haynes Fenner, was the husband of Alice Fenner of 21, Donnington Gardens.  He is commemorated on the Reading University College memorial. According to the 1911 census Harold Haynes Fenner was a member of the Royal Navy prior to the war. He died on 5th November 1915   Harold was aboard the submarine E20 and lost his life as a direct result of enemy action when the submarine was torpedoed by the German UB-14. *  Harold was one of 21 who lost their lives. the UB-14 saved nine men including the captain of the vessel. Because Harolds body was not recovered he is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Panel 8. Harold and Alice had one child according to the 1911 census.

*An account of the action is posted on Wikipedia

Percy Geddes Fenner
Private 74233
1st/28th London Regiment Artists Rifles

Fenner PG name

 Percy Geddes Fenner, was the brother of Harold Fenner and son of Mr Thomas Crombie Fenner and Mrs Fanny Fenner of 11, Liverpool Road, Reading.    After a period of home service he was posted to France in February 1917.  He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial Panel 153.  Percy was initially reported missing and then killed in action on the 30th October 1917.  The second Battle of Passchendaele had begun on the 26th October 1917.  On the 30th October the British attacked, in bad weather, on a front from Poelcapelle to Passchendaele; they managed to enter Passchendaele but were later driven out.  During these battles it could take up to six men to carry a one wounded soldier on a stretcher.  The German counter attacks and bombardments had churned the land into waist deep mud.  Many of the wounded were never found having drowned in the mud.  The Canadians eventually captured Passchendaele on the 6th November and thus ended the Third Battle of Ypres.

 Percy Fenner had been in the army ten months.  Before the war her was employed at Messer’s Petty and Sons, printers.  He had worked there for fifteen years having started as a boy in the office and rising to chief estimating clerk.  In the Standard of March 9th 1918, Mr Petty writes, ‘he was a most respected employee and in him we have lost a most valued and trustworthy servant’.  He was educated at St. Stephen’s School.  Mr Hopcraft the Headmaster wrote,’ He was one of the most steadfast and dearest friends’.  Percy had been a member of the St. Stephen’s church choir for many years.  According to the paper Mr and Mrs Fenner had now lost their third son to the war.  Their surviving son Edgar was serving in France. The 1911 census indicated that Edgar was a Clerk Seedsman. Edgar survived the war, he died in 1973 aged 83.

 The Fenner Brothers are commemorated on their parent’s grave.  Berkshire Family History Society classification 67C7

Maurice Sydney Felgate

Army, Other Regiments, Registered War Grave

Maurice Sydney Felgate
Lance Corporal 1462 “A” Squadron
1st/1st Suffolk Yeomanry

War Plot
Divisions 71 and 72

Felgate memorial

Maurice Felgate was the son of William and Emma Felgate, of Ipswich.  He died on 22nd December 1915 of sickness following enteric, aged 26.   

Details of his military career are not known but soldiers often succumbed to illness after spending time in the trenches in adverse conditions. 

A small memorialplaced by the hedge out side the war plot was found early in 1999.  (Memorials are not permitted in the war plot.) The memorial was commissioned by the Ipswich Y.M.C.A.  He had probably been a member of had a close connection with the organisation.  It bears the commemoration “He Died for his Country”.