Frank Griffin

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Passchendaele

Frank Griffin
Lance Corporal PLY/1800(S) (Plymouth Battalion?)
Royal Marine Light Infantry

Division 38

Griffin F photo

 

Frank Griffin was the son of Cornelius and Annie Griffin, of 53, Mount Pleasant, Reading; and husband of Ethel Annie Griffin, of 45 Highgrove Street, Reading.  Frank Griffin died leaving a small daughter called Doris.  He is commemorated on the kerbs of the family grave. Frank was killed in action on 26th October 1917, aged 32. 

 The 26th October 1917 was the first day of what came to be known as the Second Battle of Passchendaele.   On this day the British and their allies improved their positions from Passchendaele to Poelcapelle.   Matrix tells us that the attack began at 5.40am.  On either side of the Menin road the British 7th and 5th Divisions were frustrated by marshes.  The Australians and Canadians took their objectives moving off in a mist that became a heavy rain as the day progressed.  The Canadians had 70% casualties.  Poelcapelle means church in the bog and it was in a bog that the British fought.  Several days later New Zealand troops came upon the remains of the Northumberland Fusiliers and Durham Light infantry lying in rows where they had been mown down by German machine guns as they had made their advance on the first day of the battle.

 Frank Griffin is buried in Poelcapelle British Cemetery. Location XVI. F. 10 

This cemetery was made after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from other cemeteries and from the battlefields.  The great majority of the dead fell in the last five months of 1917, particularly the month of October.

The 1911 census shows us that Frank, now aged 26, was as yet unmarried. He was living wth his parents and other brothers at 3 Mount Pleasant, Silver Street. His father and olderbrother Henry worked at the biscuit factory, Frank and his younger brother Edward were house painters and his brother Ernest was a butcher. Another brother, Albert was not living at home.

Sidney Edwin Grimes and John Arthur Grimes

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Royal Berkshire Regiment

Stanley Edwin Grimes
Private 18476
2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment

 Division 17

Stanley Edwin Grimes was the son of John and Emma Grimes, of 13, Western Elms Avenue, Reading, and the brother of John Arthur Grimes.  He was killed in action on the 12th August 1917, aged 27.

 Stanley Edwin Grimes was a Signaller with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.  He was killed instantaneously when hit by a shell whilst carrying out signalling duties.  Stanley Grimes had joined up in April 1916 and went immediately to Blandford to train as a signaller.  He passed his examinations with First Class Honours and went to France in July 1916.  Throughout the winter he served as a voluntary stretcher bearer and was invalided home in May 1917.  He returned to the front in June 1917.  He had been educated at the Collegiate School, Reading.

 Stanley Edwin Grimes has no known grave.  It is likely that after being struck by a shell that there was no body to bury or the grave may have been lost during the battle.  He is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, Bay 3.

John Arthur Grimes M.C.
Second Lieutenant
1st Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment

John Arthur Grimes was the son of John and Emma Grimes, of 13, Western Elms Avenue, Reading, and the husband of Ella Maud Grimes, of 1, Clarence Street, Brighton.

He died on the 7th March 1918, aged 34(37).  He is buried in Metz-en-Coutre Communal Cemetery British Extension, Pas de Calais.  The village was captured by the 10th and 11th King’s Royal Rifle Corps on the 4th and 5th April, 1917, and evacuated on the 23rd March, 1918, and retaken by the 1st Otago Regiment the following 6th September.  The village was noted for its extensive system of underground cellars.  The original burials were made in Plots I and II.  Further Plots were made after the Armistice.   The early months of 1918 were fairly quiet marked by a feeling of something about to happen.  Men were tired but in good spirits, they were daily involved in building new reorganised defensive systems.  Similar to the German, defence in depth, the new British system comprised a “Forward zone” , basically an out post line, the “Battle Zone” which was to be the main line of defence some 2,000 – 3,000 yards behind the Forward Zone and finally at a similar distance behind the Battle Zone the “Corps Line”.  The army itself was also under going reorganisation and merging of units.  Fatigues were hazardous when working parties  were in range of enemy artillery or sniper fire; getting to the work area across a cratered and muddy battlefield also took its toll.  Raids were frequent, some times ill-though-out and often so clumsy in their execution that the Germans  were well aware that the British were coming.  Meanwhile the Germans were carefully planning their impending Spring Offensive and Haig was eagerly awaiting an attack he knew must come. J.A. Grimes died of gaspoisoning whilst trying to rescue his orderly who had been buried in a trench which was damaged by a heavy bombardment of shelling which came after midnight on 6th March 1918.  Amidst the high explosive shells were ‘rum jars’ containing phosgene gas which disguised the presence of the gas and caused injury to a further two officers and 29 other ranks.  A photograph of john Grimes can be found in the book: The China Dragon’s Tales The 1st Battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment in the Great War.

The 1901 census indicates that John Grimes senior was a cabinet salesman and that he was assisted in this job by his oldest son John. The family were living in western Elms Road. His younger brother Stanley and sister Annie were then twelve and fourteen years respectively, no occupation is given for either of them; it is possible that they were still in school. Like the other families living in Western Elmes Road the family employed a domestic servant.   In 1911 Stanley is a boarder at a publichouse in Warwickshire and his occupation is given as an Ironmongers assistant. He obviously enlisted in the county and joined the local battalion. The landlord and lady of the public house had a daughter about the same age as Stanley but whether they had an intimate relationship is unknown.  In 1911 John is a boarder in Oxfordshire, he still has the same occupation.

Harold Guille

Army, Canadian, Commemorated name/s, Graves, Other Regiments, Reading School War Memorial, Ypres

Harold Guille
Private 442387
7th Battalion Canadian Infantry (British Columbia Regiment)

 Divison 19

Guille H photo  CIMG2094

Harold Guille  was the son of Mr. & Mrs. George C. Guille , of 28, Castle Crescent, Reading. The 1901 census indicated that Harold had two older sisters and a step brother. At the time Harold was fifteen and no occupation is given for him. Further information pertaining to Harold Guille is held in Canadian records and 1911 census however, the CWGC register indicated that he was the husband of May Guille, of Nelson, British Columbia.   He was killed in action on the 15th April 1916, aged 31. 

Harold Guille is buried in Railway Dugouts Burial Ground (Transport Farm), near Ypres. Plot IV. Row E. 30.  The burial ground was started during 1915 and during 1916 and 1917 the farm was usedby Advanced Dressing Stations. After the Armistice the burial ground became a concentration cemetery.

 The Second Battle of Ypres drew to a conclusion on 24th May 1915.  With it the intense action of the conflict assumed a lower key but, although quieter in many respects, men were still suffering and dying in terrible circumstances.  Shelling, mining and raids of one sort or another took their toll of lives.  Actions to straighten out the line took place at Bellwaarde Ridge and Hooge Château in July 1915, the British used a massive mine and the Germans used “liquid fire” to reek destruction.  Working parties moved through sickening mud and slime, all around the smell of unburied dead.  Later in the year the Battle of Loos began and ended, here the British used gas for the first time.  Gallipoli was finally evacuated in January 1916, Verdun was attacked in February and the “Big Push” planned for the summer.  Around Ypres the shelling, mining, counter mining, trench raids, snow, rain, frost and lice were endured by both sides.  On both sides men died in abominable circumstances.