Charles Frederick Hunt

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, St. Batholomew's Church

Charles Frederick Hunt
Staff Sergeant 158072 155th Heavy Battery
Royal Garrison Artillery

Division 82
Extension

Hunt CF photo Hunt CF Rcem com2

 

Charles Frederick Hunt  was the son of James and Amy Hunt, of Reading.  He is commemorated on his parents grave, number 17522.

Charles Hunt died of wounds in Genoa Hospital, on  21ST June 1918 aged 38.  He is buried in Staglieno Cemetery Genoa, location I.B.15.

The Reading Standard 6 July 1918 published an obituary.:

“Charles Hunt had been educated at Newtown Board School.  After he was apprenticed as a fitter at to Messers. Adams. De Beauvoir Road. For the last ten years he was working for Messers. Wellman Bros. Windsor. He used to sing in St. Bartholomews Church choir and was one of the earliest members of the St. Paneras Guild taking an active part in the annual ameateur theatricals and cricket. Staff Serjeant Hunt left England for France in June 1917  and in the following November proceded to Italy. For some weeks he had been Acting  Quartermaster and expected to obtain leave within a few days. He leaves a widow and one daughter.”

Herbert Hussey

Army, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Reading University College

Herbert Hussey
Private 39772
1st Battalion Somerset Light Infantry

 Division 21

Hussey H photo  CIMG2191

Herbert Hussey was the son of Mrs H. Hussey of 32, Northumberland Avenue, Reading.  He is commemorated on the headstone of the grave of his mothers and sisters, number 16635.  Berkshire History Society classification 21G1.

We are told on the caption to his photograph that he died in Aden on his way home from India.  Notification of his death was published in the Reading Standard April 5th 1919.  Herbert Hussey had served for 3 years 4 months in the Army.  Prior to the outbreak of war he had spent several years in France and Germany.  He joined up as a volunteer a year after the outbreak of war and belonged to the 1st Garrison Somerset Battalion attached to the Hampshire Regiment.  He was sent to France but invalided home in July 1917.  He recovered and was sent to India in December 1918 with the Somerset Light Infantry.  He started his return home on 24th February 1919 but died on the17th March 1919.  He is buried in Maala Cemetery, Yemen.  Location G. 6.

By profession Herbert Hussey was a schoolmaster.  He had trained at Culham College and taught at for some time at Grovelands school.  He was the Assistant organist at All Saint’s Church and organist and choirmaster at St. Georges Church.  He was a member of the Choral Society of University College Reading and a well-known concert performer.

David William Leaver, Herbert Charles Hyde, Leonard Lever Hyde

Army, Berkshire Yeomanry, Commemorated name/s, Other Regiments, Reading Blue Coat School, Reading University College, Somme, St. Batholomew's Church

David William Leaver
Trooper 70781
“B” Squadron 1st/1st Berkshire Yeomanry

Division 57

Leaver DW photo  CIMG2131

 David William Leaver is commemorated on a large headstone along with Leonard Leaver Hyde and Herbert Charles Hyde.  The family headstone has details inscribed on both sides of the stone and the three boys were obviously related.

David Leaver was the only son of Alice and Alfred Leaver of 52, Cumberland Road, Reading.  He was 22 when he died on 25th November 1917, of wounds received in Palestine. He is commemorated on the St. Bartholomew’s Church memorial.

At the announcement of his death his parents wrote:
“A bright spring time, a few days of summer and then the end.
Grief is for those left behind, not for them.”

He is buried in Ramleh Convent Garden Cemetery, Palestine.  William Victor Ross Sutton, son of Readings Mayor at the time, was killed in action  twelve days before him and is buried in the same cemetery.

The ‘In Memoriam‘ of 1918, Standard 23rd November, quotes the lines of the famous remembrance poem –
“He shall not grow old as we who are left grow old,
Age shall not weary him, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember him.”
Mother and Dad

In loving remembrance of “Our Dave”, a very dear brother and friend,
He passed beyond our touch, beyond our care,
But never beyond our love and prayer,
Mabel and Maggie

And in 1919 a friend remembered:
In loving memory of my dear pal (Dave), died of wounds at Ramleh, Palestine.
Two years have passed, I do not forget him,
For his memory to fade from my life like a dream;
But lips need not speak when the heart mourns sincerely,
For grief often dwell where it seldom is seen.
Bert.

Herbert Charles Hyde
Rifleman 535423
1/15th London Regiment,
Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles.

Hyde HC photo

Rifleman Herbert Hyde was killed in action in France Sept. 1st 1918 aged 23. He was the eldest son of Henry Herbert and Ellen Florence. Hyde, of 62 Orts Rd.  An ‘In Memoriam’ states he was-

One who never turned his back,
But marched breast forward;
Never doubted clouds would break;
Never dreamed, though right were worsted,
Wrong would triumph.

Herbert Hyde is buried in Rancourt Military Cemetery , Somme.  Grave location A. 3.  Rancourt was in an area of severe fighting during the allied offensives in the late summer of 1918.   The village was taken by the British the day Herbert Hyde was killed.

 Leonard Leaver Hyde
Lance Corporal 534506
1/15th London Regiment,
Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles. 

Hyde LL photo

Leonard Leaver Hyde was on board HMS “Aragon“ going to join the BEF in Palestine when the ship was torpedoed in the Mediterranean on December 30th 1917. Leonard was aged 19. He was the brother of Herbert Charles Hyde and second son of Henry & Ellen Hyde.

He had  joined the army on Jan 29th 1917.  He was educated at St. Stephen’s and Reading Blue Coat School, and was a clerk at the GWR Goods office Paddington.

Herbert and Leonard are both commemorated on the Reading University College memorial.