Cecil Rupert May
Private 1^st/4^th Battalion
Royal Berkshire Regiment

Cecil Rupert May is commemorated on his parents grave. He was the son of Frederick and Harriet May of 51, Market Place,  Reading.  It has not been possible to obtain information about Cecil Rupert May from Ancestry sources. He was killed in action on 16^th May 1916.  Cecil May is buried in Hébuterne Military Cemetery, location I B 9.

The 1^st/4^th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment were the first British Battalion to take over from the French.   In May, the 1^st/4^th’s took over “G” sector, an area of unfamiliar and difficult ground near Tourvent farm on the outskirts of Serre.  The ground was badly cut up with old trenches and shell holes and littered with bones from the fighting in June 1915.  The communications trench was 1½ miles long and in a very poor state.  Rations had to be brought up from Hébuterne.  The front line was itself a salient which projected towards the strong German defence system around Serre.  The line was defended with some difficulty using an arrangement of disconnected outposts.

At 12.30 a.m. on the morning of 16^th May a raid took place.  The Germans had opened a violent bombardment on another sector around midnight on the left of the 48^th Division.  The guns of the 48^th division responded to a false SOS and the Germans, after registering on the division guns, then directed heavy fire at the batteries.  Across a frontage of 600 yards two platoons of the 1^st/4^th’s manned seven detached posts.

The bombardment lasted half an hour and was directed at the front and supervision lines.  At 1 a.m. the bombardment shifted to the support and reserve trenches with shells falling at a rate of a hundred per minute.  “B” company in their outposts were over powered and half a supporting platoon of “A” company were destroyed in the bombardment.  When the Germans finally made their attack the outposts were in such disarray that they managed to get in behind and attack the Berkshires from the rear.  The attack, continued by German infantry until 1.40a.m. along different parts of the salient, and the bombardment went on all night until it stopped at dawn.

Losses numbered 98, 18 killed and 29 missing, later most were reported as prisoners of war.  ‘B’ company lost half its fighting strength.  This was the first serious test for the 1^st/4^th’s and their endurance, discipline and fighting spirit were praised by the Divisional and Corps Commanders.  Cecil May was killed during this action.

Detail of this action are taken from the History of the Royal Berkshire Regiment by Petre and as written up in ‘The School,the Master,the Boys and the VC’ – the story behind the Alfred Sutton School War Memorial and the Great War 1914-1918.