Martin Henry Child
2^nd Lieutenant Armament School (Uxbridge)
Royal Air Force

 Division 78
Extension

Martin Henry Child was the eldest son of Thomas Henry and Nancy Child of Connaught Rise. Reading.  His is a registered war grave with an impressive private memorial. His parents and sister are buried with him.  Grave number 16530. 

 Martin Child’s death on the 13^th November 1918, aged 21, must have been all the more tragic given the declaration of the Armistice only days before. 

 An account of his death and war service was published in the Reading Standard on 30^th November 1918.

“Death of Second Lieut. M.H.Child – who passed away on Nov. 13th at the Cottage Hospital, Uxbridge, from pneumonia, at the early age of 21.

Educated at Christ’s Hospital Horsham, later became a member of staff at Sir Samuel Scott and Co.’s branch of Parr’s Bank. 

At the age of 18 he joined the Royal Naval Air Service as an aerial gunner, and on April 2nd 1917 proceeded to Italy, was stationed at Tatanto, where he fell victim to malaria fever.  After being in hospital in Rome for several weeks, he was invalided to England, and arrived home in January 1918. The Medical board deemed him permanently unfit for further flying.  Stationed at Warash, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant and shortly after commissioned as an armament officer.

His commanding officer wrote well of him.  The funeral from the Wesleyan Church Oxford Rd and interment in Reading cemetery”.