Wilfred Augustus Allen

Army, Other Regiments, Registered War Grave

Wilfred Augustus Allen
Private 8/117935
3rd Battalion Devonshire Regiment.

Division 56

Wilfred Augustus Allen was the son of  Herbert James and Florence Annie Allen, of 96, Spring Gardens, Reading.   

His is a registered war grave with a CWGC war pattern headstone.  Grave number 15907.  He died on 5th February 1918 of pneumonia, aged 18.  

The Reading Standard, February 16th 1918, carried a report: 

Wilfred Augustus Allen: Devon Regt. son of PC and Mrs H.J. Allen of 96 Spring Gardens Reading on February 5th from pneumonia, aged 18.  Before enlisting he was employed at the tramways Depot, Reading.  The funeral took place with military honours at Whitley Hall on Tuesday.  

His officer writes:  “I realise only too well, what the loss will mean to you, and I know you will feel it hard that a promising boy should be taken away from you in this manner.  It is so hard for parents to have to give their boys up  to the army and to loose them on this side of the water, but he has died for his country just as much as if he had fallen in battle.  Though he had only been with us a month he had come under my notice as being a particularly bright clean mannered and promising boy, and he was a general favourite in the company.  He was a goal keeper in the company team, and a genuine sportsman”.

 25rd October 1999.

Godfrey Lewis Allum

Alfred Sutton School War Memorial, Army, Royal Berkshire Regiment, Western Front

Godfrey Lewis Allum
Private 203413
5th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment.

G L Allum headstone

 

Initial research revealed that Godfrey died on 26 August 1918 and was buried at Péronne Road Cemetery, Maricourt, location IV. E. 34.   Godfrey Allum was remembered by his parents, brothers and sisters in the Reading Standard 1919 although the ‘In Memoriam’ supplied little information about the circumstances of his death and his age wasnot given.

An search of  Ancestry UK revealed that his parents were James Allum and Eliza Pendygrass Allum. In 1911 Godfrey’s second name is written as Louis on the census form. He was then aged 18, his year of birth is given as about 1893 and that he was born in Henley upon Thames; his occupation is given as a printers apprentice. His father was a labourer at a corn merchants and his mother is recorded as being a dressmaker.  Only rarely at the time were women recorded as having an occupation. Godfrey had an older sister, Olive, then 21 and working at the biscuit factory, and a younger sister Myrtle aged 14 and younger brother Cyril aged 12 who were presumably still at school. The family were living at 13. Elgar Road, Reading. Godfrey would have been about 25 when he was killed.

Colin Fox in ‘Their Duty Done’ gives an account of the 5th Battalion battle at Carnoy on 26 August 1918 and Godfrey Allum is numbered among the thirty-seven casualties of the battalion who were killed during the action. The fighting took place during the British advance to Péronne. The battalion orders for the day were to prepare for an attack between 4am and 4.30am:

 ‘They marched by compass bearing and only reached their forming-up position at 4.45am, thus losing their barrage which was now falling some 1,500 yards a head of them. Their attack was made on both sides of the village and was met with heavy artillery and machine gun fire that caused a large number of casualties. The survivors managed to reach a spur, which was their first objective, and the leading troops were able to fight their way to German trenches on a forward slope beyond the village facing the strip of woodland called Talus Boisé, west of Maricourt. A line was established late in the afternoon. On the following day the battalion moved forward and took up a position beyond Talus Boisé with its right on the small copse immediately to the east known as Machine Gun Wood. From here they moved back to Carnoy which had been meanwhile secured by other units and stayed there until the end of the month.’

 

Alfred Edward Ambrose

Army, Canadian, Registered War Grave

Alfred Edward Ambrose
Private 3642 1st Canadian Division
Motor Transport Company
Army Service Corps.

Division 9

AMBROSE A CEM  CIMG2148

Alfred Edward Ambrose was the  son of John Ambrose and husband of Alice M. Ambrose (nee Gardener), of 31, Western Road,  Reading.  He died of wounds on 14th March 1921, aged 40.  Alfred is buried in a registered war grave number 16790 and this is marked with a private headstone.   

The death of Alfred Ambrose was announced in the Standard March 19th 1921.  He died at the Orthopaedic Hospital, Headlington, of wounds received in 1918.   He is commemorated in the Canadian 1st World War Book of Remembrance.