A Cheshire Lad

David Reade

The 75^th Anniversary of the end of the First World War once again turned my thoughts to my uncle, VINCENT FORESTER READE, one of the many to surrender his life in the service of his country. I had heard family stories about him. He was a bright, intelligent young man, full of fun and liked by everyone. Family folklore, passed on by my father, said that he had been killed by a machine gunner when going to get water for an injured comrade. He is one of the many with no known grave. His two brothers and his sister are now dead, so I had no further verbal evidence to call on. How could I find out about my uncle whom I had never had the privilege to meet?

Vincent was born at Forest House, Delamere, on 23^rd February 1895, the eldest child of James Henry Reade and his wife Christina Ellen (née Jones). James Henry was a farmer and cattle dealer. Two more sons followed, William Edwin in 1897, Harold Haydock, my father, in 1899 and a daughter, Constance Mary (Connie) in 1903. Before Harold and Connie were born, the family moved to the Clotton Hoofield or Duddon area of Tarvin and James Henry was earning his living by cattle dealing.

Soon after the birth of Connie, things started to go badly within the family. James Henry was, by all accounts, "a bit of a lad" who liked his ale too much. He had a brother Samuel who was a Lay Preacher in the Chapel and it is said that their arrival at the local cattle markets used to be greeted by the saying: "Here come Jesus and the Devil"! Christina Ellen decided that enough was enough and deserted the family home, returning to her native area in Shropshire. James Henry was left to look after four children under the age of ten. To cope with this situation he left Cheshire with the three boys and moved to London where his sister, Anne Pawley, was living. She helped him to look after the boys. Connie, still very young, was sent to James Henry's eldest sister, Elizabeth Rowland, who was living at Alderley Edge. This was as much as I knew of the family situation.

All I had to start my research was a Memorial Card, which told me that my uncle was killed on 9^th April 1918 and a series of seven letters, which had come to light when Connie died. They had been written by Vincent between 1914 and 1917 to his little sister in Cheshire. They reflected a wish to keep the family together and give an insight into Vincent's personality. Most important, they gave me a regiment, the 4^th East Surrey Regiment.

From the letters it was clear that Vincent was valued for his ability as an instructor because he seems to have spent most of the war at a training camp near Saltash in Cornwall. By 1917 he was a Sergeant, training new recruits, many under age and delivering them to France before returning to train another batch. He describes one such trip in one of theletters, telling of the journey to Boulogne and the progress on the French railway in cattle trucks, 36 men to a truck. The speed was such that the soldiers could get off, do some shopping and catch up with the train again. It took six and a half hours to go nineteen miles. Vincent gave Connie news of her other brother who had also joined the army. By 1917 William had been badly wounded and they feared for his life. In later years I knew him to be very lame and having a glass eye as a result of his injuries. There are also references to my father, a signaller, "doing his best to make himself indispensable at Base Camp to avoid going to the Front." It didn't succeed. He was both wounded and gassed, and still had shrapnel working its way out until a few years before he died in 1973. Above all, the letters are those of an older brother giving the sort of advice a parent would have given to a united family.

When I contacted the Imperial War Graves Commission a few years ago they confirmed that Vincent died on 9^th April 1918 and that he was one of those who had no named grave. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Passendale (formerly Passchendaele) in Belgium. They also confirmed that he was in the East Surrey Regiment and the 13^th Battalion at the time of his death. The precise location of the Tyne Cot Memorial was given together with directions of how to get there. Although I have not been able to visit the Cemetery I have photographs of Vincent's entry on the Memorial, brought back for me by some Family History friends who were visiting the War Cemeteries in the area.

The next question was how to discover more about the history of the East Surreys. I wondered if it was possible to find out about the events, which led to Vincent's death. To find the whereabouts of the Regimental Museum I wrote to the Imperial War Museum for advice and I received a response beyond anything I could have hoped for. They confirmed that Vincent's name was on the Tyne Cot Memorial but thought he was in the 12^th Battalion, not the 13^th. However, when it was checked, no trace of him was found in the 12^th Battalion and there were no names beginning with R in the 13^th, a most unlikely event. A few originally compiled ledgers of casualties do survive at the Imperial War Museum and these were checked. They were not as detailed as the published lists: "Soldiers Died in the Great War" but they did confirm that Vincent was in the 13^th Battalion and died on 9^th April 1918. My correspondent at the Museum went through all the copies of "Soldiers Died .." in the Museum and entered all those names beginning with R which had been omitted.

The most detailed information came in some photocopies of pages from the "History of the East Surrey Regiment". These described the events leading up to the 9^th April and the events on the day Vincent died. On that day, the Battle of Estaires was fought, the first of the battles of the Lys. The extract told me that the village the 13^th Battalion was defending was Fleurbaix and described the course of the battle. The Germans had broken through the Allied lines where a badly battered Portuguese unit had been forced to retreat. The 13^th Battalion of the East Surreys had been surrounded and attacked from the rear. On the day of the battle five officers and seven other ranks were known to have been killed and one officer and eighty other ranks wounded. A total of 14 officers and 437 other ranks were reported as missing. From these figures it is clear that Vincent would have been one of the very many with no known grave on that terrible day.

What else do the letters tell me about Vincent Forester Reade? For his time and his background he was an educated man. He wrote a good letter in a good hand and pitched his letters at a level to interest his little sister. He was forthright about the Cornish, describing them as "clannish" and thought the North Staffs Regiment to be "very rough chaps". (He probably didn't know that the Reades came from North Staffordshire!) In the second to last letter he responds to the news that Connie has left school and started work by giving her some sound advice. "Now, dear Connie, don't forget work always comes first and play afterwards. Always try to take an interest in it and you will find it will always serve you a good purpose and leave a good opinion behind wherever you go." He advises her to take the chance to go to evening classes if she can. (These cost only a shilling a session at the Council Schools.)

The last letter is the most poignant. He is tiring of the war and is cynical about events. He is stirred by the sound of a nearby horse-drawn mowing machine and his thoughts go back to those happier days of his early childhood in Cheshire. "They were happy yet sorrowful days..." Later in the letter he casts sorrow aside. "Our lives are too short to be miserable, so why not be jolly and happy at every turn". Seven months later he was gone.

What else is there to learn about Vincent? I have yet to try the Regimental Museum for more details of his career and I have been warned not to try the Ministry of Defence archives. They have the reputation of being expensive and taking your money often for a nil return. Perhaps I will wait until the "Customer's Charter" reaches the MoD before I try. In contrast I would like to thank the Imperial War Museum for the great help they gave me. I only asked for the address of the Regimental Museum when I wrote to them. What a wealth of detail they produced for me!