Walter May

Alfred Sutton School War Memorial, Army, Royal Berkshire Regiment, Somme

Walter May
Lance Corporal 12760
6th Royal Berkshire Regiment

May Walter photo May W name

Walter May was the eldest son of Mr  Tom and Mrs Emma May of 3 Pitcroft Avenue, Reading.  The 1911census indicates that he was a Clerk Seedsman, probably at Suttons, his father and a younger brother also workedfor the same firm. Walter May had two sisters. He joined up on the 5th September 1914 and went to France on 25th July 1915.

The 6th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment, with which Walter served, was part of the 18th Division and was amongst those few battalions which had some success on the first day of the battle of the Somme.  They were situated on the far right of the British line near the French and achieved their objective,  the taking of Montauban.  The battalion was also involved in a fateful attack on Delville Wood on the 19th July when many men were lost in a badly planned operation.  The Somme battle continued wearily with great loss of men on both sides through the summer and autumn of 1916.  The 6th battalion was involved in the actions which finally resulted in the eventual successful capture of most of the Thiepval ridge from the Germans.

Thiepval had been a first day objective of the Somme offensive.  The 18th Division was given the task of taking Thiepval and also the strong point known as the Schwaben Redoubt.  “On the Somme” by Colin Fox et al., gives an account of the involvement of the 6th Battalion.  The Division had three weeks  battle training prior to the attack which was set for 26th September.  The 6th Royal Berkshire Regiment was in the brigade reserve with the 8th Suffolks leading the attack with the 10th Essex Regiment.  There were three days of preliminary bombardment with zero hour at 12.35pm on the 26th September.  The initial attack on Thiepval was very successful with the Germans, according to the Official History, eager to surrender without a fight.

However, progress towards the Schwaben redoubt was much more difficult and the advanced came to a standstill at about 6.20pm.  The 6th Berks now provided carrying parties with the task of bringing food, water and ammunition to the front line troops.  The reserve was in trenches at Crucifix Corner and it was here at dusk that the Germans sent over a massive barrage.  On the 28th September there was a renewed attack on the Schwaben Redoubt, the 6th Berks. were again in the reserve, this time in Authuille Wood.  The attacking battalions sustained heavy casualties and the following morning the 6th Berks. were sent in to relieve the Suffolks.  They were heavily shelled all day, and many of the men were suffering from a lack of sleep.  Walter May would have experienced the spasmodic bombing attacks carried out by both sides and the heavy shelling , which in deteriorating weather, reduced the ground into a sea of mud.  By the 5th October the Redoubt was back in British hands.   On the 6th October the 6th Royal Berkshire were withdrawn from the line and moved into billets.

Walter May was one of the 14 men killed during this action, he died on the 5th October 1916.   Walter’s body was never found and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial pier and face 11D. He was 22 years old.

Albert G May

Graves

Albert G May
Private 299839
735th Company Labour Corps.

The following details have been provided by Roger Panter.

Albert was born and grew up in Cove, Hampshire.  His mother, Rose, was about nineteen and unmarried when Albert was born in the last quarter of 1875 and he was raised by his grandparents, James and Ann May.  Rose married Henry Goodyear in 1881 but Henry died only a year after their marriage; Rose never married again.  Rose and Henry and Albert’s grandparents were all buried in St John’s Churchyard, Cove.

When Albert left school he worked as a general labourer, presumably in the building trade because by 1901 he described himself as a plasterer.  He married Maude Eugenie Cordell in the first quarter of 1906 in the registration district of Hendon and the couple evidently continued to live in north London because in the 1911 census they were living in Harrow Wealdstone.  Albert described himself as a journeyman plasterer ‘working where I can get work’.

Albert and Maude had three children together, Ivy (b 1906), Leslie (b 1907) and Ena
(b 1911).  By the time Albert enlisted in 1915 the family had moved to New Malden, Surrey.

Albert’s service records have survived, albeit in a damaged condition; they show that he enlisted with the Army Service Corps on 15 March 1915 in London.  The Army Service Corps (later the Royal Army Service Corps) was responsible for keeping the British Army supplied with all its provisions except weaponry, military equipment and ammunition.  When war came the BEF in France soon found that the local authorities could not supply civilian men for labouring duties such as helping disembark stores and equipment from ships and so the War Office began to recruit skilled labourers and dock workers to perform these tasks.  The men were formed into Labour Companies of the Army Service Corps, each Company consisting of 6 officers and 530 other ranks. Numbers 1 and 2 Labour Companies were officially formed at Aldershot on 24-25 August 1914 and many more followed with approximately 21,000 men having been recruited for this work by the end of 1915.

After attesting in London, George was sent immediately to the ASC Depot at Aldershot and sailed for France only 16 days later.  Unfortunately the records do not show which company he was with or where he was employed after he reached France.  On 1 August 1917 he was transferred to the recently formed Labour Corps.  The following extracts come from ‘The Pioneer’ website and give a good description of the role and origins of the Corps:

“The initial need for labour units during WW1 had been achieved with some 38 Labour Battalions established in 18 different infantry regiments, and a large number of Labour Companies from other infantry regiments. In addition there were a good number of Labour Companies in the Royal Engineers and the Army Service Corps. All these became Labour Corps companies in the spring and summer of 1917. The Labour Battalions and later the Labour Companies of the Labour Corps carried out a whole range of defence works duties in the UK and in overseas theatres, especially in France and Flanders. These included road and railway building/repair, moving ammunition and stores, load and unloading ships and trains, burial duties and at home agriculture and forestry…………

Although initially considered non-combatants, the British companies of the Labour Corps often performed their duties in forward areas, often under heavy fire. In the spring of 1918 the Corps assumed combatant status for dealing with the last German offensive of March 1918. Throughout the summer of that year the men of the Labour Corps units in the forward areas worked fully armed and some served as fighting soldiers when need arose. However the vast majority of men continued to work in unarmed companies. Life in the Labour Corps could be as bad as that enjoyed by front line troops; they were often under continual shellfire for months at a time. Indeed 2,300 men in the Labour Corps were either killed in action or died of wounds between May 1917 and the end of the war…………..

By the end of the war the Labour Corps had a strength of about 380,000 men stationed in the UK, in France and Flanders, Italy, Egypt and Salonika. In fact the size of the Corps reached its greatest of almost 400,000 in Jan 1919. This

included about 240 Labour Companies in France and Flanders with about thirty to fifty Labour Companies allocated to each of the first, second, third, fourth and fifth armies, with a few kept aside as lines of communication units. There were about the same number of companies serving elsewhere overseas at area, divisional, corps and army level as well as some 400 or so companies working in the UK. In late 1918 and early 1919 there were Labour Companies numbered from 1 to over 1000, with little evidence of their origin. The Labour Corps was disbanded late in 1919.”

Albert was transferred to the Labour Corps on 1 August 1917 and immediately posted to the 714th Company.  He only remained with that company for just over a month, being posted to the 712th Company on 6 September and finally to the 735th Company on 5 October.  There is no indication in his service records of where he was stationed with these companies or what duties they performed.

Albert was admitted to hospital in France on 27 February 1918 with severe pains to the back of his neck and on 6 April was returned to hospital in England, probably in Reading.  He died on 17 May in Section 4, Reading War Hospital from ‘Tubercle of Lung’.  Albert was buried in the military section of Reading Cemetery on 21 May 1918.  Graves in this section of the cemetery are not individually marked and Albert’s name is one of 100 recorded on a screen wall (grave ref. Screen Wall. 72. 16413).

 

J.J. McKeever

Army, Graves, Other Regiments, Registered War Grave

Private J.J. McKeever,
T4/1244223, 4th Division Supply Unit,
Army Service Corps.

Division 14

 CIMG2158

J. J. McKeever was 50 years old and died on the 8th August 1915.  He was  the son of John and Jane McKeever.  Born at Waterside, Londonderry.

McKeever died in a tragic boating accident whilst based near Reading.  He and Driver J. Starkie were in a Canadian canoe on the Thames at Tilehurst when the canoe capsized and both soldiers were drowned.  Neither man could swim.  The Coroners verdict was that of “Accidental Drowning”.

During the war years there were many such accidents on the Thames, sometimes of army personelle and sometimes civilians and children.  Many drownings were accidental, some were deliberate acts of suicide.

Mrs Starkie attended the funeral and also Thomas Logue, the brother in law of McKeeveer.  A volley was fired and the “Last Post played”.  The grave of Private McKeever is marked by a CWGC war pattern headstone.  Driver Starkie  is also buried in the cemetery in Division 49.