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.