Wifred Reeves - where was he?

[jainvince]

He wrote home from a location which was censored but may have been around Festubert

"We have had some rough times out here but it is for a good cause. We made a charge on the 17th and for about 10 days it was rough - a bombardment lasting nearly all the time . It is a wonder any of us can hear. Still we pushed them back and took two lines of trenches and a lot of prisoners. When we got relieved we looked a nice sight - had not a wash or shave for ten days and covered all over with mud - but it cheered us up as we marched into our billets after being relieved and passed through the streets to hear the people cheer us as half of our batallion were wearing German Helmets they had got through the charge.....".

He had previously been stationed at Sheerness but I don't know his Regiment.

Bernard

[roughdiamond]

Date of the letter, where he lived, when he was in Sheerness and did he live or die would all help!

But here goes anyway, only 4 MIC's for Wilfred Reeves, 3 Infantrymen and 1 RE http://www.nationala...pe=1=*

1 of the former 2505 Pte Wilfred Reeves of the 4th South Lancs was KIA 07/04/1915. The letter extract doesn't sound like the actions of a Sapper leaving one man from The Queens (Royal West Surreys) and one from the KRRC.

Of those, the KRRC's 5th and 6th (Reserve) Bn's which were Depot/Training Bn's were based at Sheerness, so I'd hazard a guess from that, your man is probably R7667 Pte Wilfred Reeves KRRC, This is a link to his MIC on Ancestry http://search.ancest...D9_x=1&uidh=000 was the man in the letters training at Sheerness?

I should add there's also quite a few MIC's for W. Reeves as well, so the assumption above maybe totally wrong.

Sam

[jainvince]

Sam

Thanks. Wifred Reeves enlisted late 1914 possibly Jan 1915 as he is listed in the January 1915 Magazine. I do not know the date of the letter but it was published in the July 1915 Magazine. The date quoted, ie 17th was either May (Festubert)or June 1915. As one letter is reported to have taken only 2 days to reach home, I believe May 1915 is more likely.

Wilfred Reeves survived.

Bernard

[jainvince]

He later added the following information in Censored letters which were published in the months shown:

August 1915

Wrote from France "It is Sunday morning and I am going to chapel ..... I remember at Easter having service just behind the firing lines with all the guns booming around ................... I remember a RC priest standing at the beginning of the trenches when we were going into action at a rough place speaking a word of comfort to us as we passed hime - it makes you think, you know, when men risk their lives like that to speak a word of comfort and I daresay every man went through with a better heart for it. What surprised me most when I first came out was to find the men so light hearted no matter how rough a time they were having and when out of the trenches we are quite a happy lot - we have sports and concerts and all kinds of things. Remember me........."

Sept 1915

Noted had received a slight wound in France. Wrote from France "We have been having a hard time this last week .... I am sorry to hear Willie Mills has beent wounded - he is a nice lad and would have been a good chum for E Partington." Thanked for the news in Magazine adding "You should see the ruins in the place we have just left ...... there is a church with just one wall standing. I am sending you a small photo of a shrine .... strange to say all the buildings around it have been knocked about but the shrine has not been hit and it is only about a mile behind the firing line". The photo shows a beautifully carved alter surmounted by a picture of a saint above the tabernacle and cruxifix.

I am more intrigued than ever now but the clues are little better.

Bernard

[Myrtle]

Bernard

There is a possibility that there is a Rochdale connection. There was a 23 year old Wilfred Reeves - cotton piecer - living at 50, New Road, Littleborough, Rochdale in the 1911 census. At the same time there was a 22 years old Willie Mills - cotton piecer - living at 118, New Road, Littleborough, Rochdale; possibly the same man mentioned in Wilfred's account.

[jainvince]

Myrtle

They are the two men and they both went to St Andrews church. Unfortunately, whilst we have many extracts from letters and have a broad idea where they served, generally speaking we don't have their Regiment and thus cannot check War Diaries for their exact location.

Bernard

[Myrtle]

Bernard

How do you know that Wilfred Reeves survived WW1?

[PPCLI]

Bernard,

Sam in post #2 proposes a likely candidate for Wilfred as Private R/7667 KRRC. The Sep 1915 letter mentions 'E Partington' - interestingly, there is Private C/916 Edgar Partington KRRC.

Following on from Myrtle's post #5, another connection is found on the 1911 census - there is an Edgar Partington, age 14, living at 3 Emma Street, Castleton, Rochdale.

Best wishes,

Stuart

[roughdiamond]

Bernard

How do you know that Wilfred Reeves survived WW1?

You may want to read my post #2 above and the dates on Bernards post #3.

Bernard

Did you check the Walter Reeves MIC for a "date of entry therein"

Sam

[Myrtle]

You may want to read my post #2 above and the dates on Bernards post #3.

Bernard

Did you check the Walter Reeves MIC for a "date of entry therein"

Sam

Sam

Bernard has already mentioned that Walter Reeves survived the war and I am interested to know how he already knows that this is the case.

[jainvince]

Although my transcribing of the Magazines has 'only' covered 1914 up till Nov 1915 a look ahead to the July 1918 advises us that "Wilfred Reeves (England) is out of hospital and has been discharded from the Army". This was because he was again wounded resulting in severe damage to one of his legs which necesitated a number of operations. It continued "He expects he was always be a bit crippled but he will always have the satisfaction of knowing how much he did and suffered for his home and country. Wilfred since he wrote this letter has arrived home again". In subsequent magazine his friends still in the Army passed their good wishes including how he can hold his head high for all he had done.

St Andrews Church also has its own war memorial and memorial card and W Reeves is not on either. There is no mention of his demise in the 1919 Magazines as far as I can tell.

For information the following letters were included in the Magazines:

Sept 1915 - a further letter

He wrote again from France and thanked for cigarettes adding "I am in the pink again - I had nothing more than a few scratches and bruises ..... I don't see that we out here can grumble having a free holiday with free lodging , though the bed is on the floor and no blankets." he mentioned not having met any local boys continuing "Oh what a time it will be when it is over and the Germans are crushed as they will be in the end".

October 1915

Wrote from France "When I got the magazine we were resting ..... but only got 8 days and then we had a miserable march to the trenches ..... pouring rain nearly the whole time. We halted ..... wet through to the skin .... and when we got to the trenches they were about a yard deep in mud so you can see what we looked like after 4 days of it. We have had a fairly quiet time ..... bombs which they have sent over from trench mortars when they explode make a noise something like a mill boiler bursting .... I see that .... Edmund Partington is a bomb thrower. Good luck to him. I am the same ...... the magazine grows more intersting every month ...................Remember me........."

November 1915

Wrote from hospital in Scotland "I am as far away from home now as I was when on the other side .... I got ......a dose of gas and a leg wound and am getting on fine. I got hit .... in the big fight and it was the roughest time there has been during the war but we made a big advance and i think it was the biggest surprise the Germans ever had. When we got amongst them the first thing they do is to throw down their arms and cry for mercy. They are alright so long as they have got a machine-gun. They keep it going until you are within a couple of yards from them and up go their arms after killing as many as possible without much danger. We looked a poor sight after our attack - all our clothers torn and covered with mud and I was two days without food and water. I was wounded during a counter attack they made on us which failed. Remember me....."

He, like many other soldiers wrote on a regular basis but, mores the pity, the censorship rules reduced much of the detail which we can now only pick up from War Diaries and books.

Bernard

[Myrtle]

Bernard

Thank you for clarification. May I suggest that you start a thread with Wilfred Reeves KRRC as there are people on the Forum who have specialised knowledge of this regiment. Wilfred Reeves was badly wounded and there is a SWB number on the mic for the KRRC man.

Edmund Partington was with the RE and appears to have been with a tunnelling company. Wilfred's older brother Robert also joined the Royal Engineers. There is a mic for a Wilfred Reeves who was with the RE but the card does not give a date for entry to a Theatre of War and this would usually indicate that the man went overseas later than 1915.

Myrtle

[jainvince]

Myrtle

Does the MIC advise which KRRC Regiment W Reeves was in, please.

Bernard

[MelPack]

Bernard & Myrtle

I have read the thread through and I tend to agree with Sam that Wilfred Reeves is the KRRC man.

His date of entry of 11 March 1915 is consistent with him being in a reinforcement draft for the KRRC 1st Battalion. The 1st Battalion is the only one of the four KRRC Battalions that were both in F&F at the time of Wilfred's arrival and fought at Festubert. By the dating of the letter and the reference to the taking of the first and second lines it has to be Festubert.

The SWB and discharge also fit perfectly with Wilfred's profile.

The real clincher would be Wilfred's name in the Times Casualty List for Loos.

Mel

Ps I think that the other two soldiers Willie (Wiliam) Mills and Edmund Partington were both in the Rifle Brigade.

[PPCLI]

The real clincher would be Wilfred's name in the Times Casualty List for Loos.

Needless to say, from looking at the quality of the image, that his entry could not be found using the search function. A whole evening of browsing the individual issues later and your wish is my ....

Wounded list for the 1st KRRC, published in The Times, 21 Oct 1915, p4. In the same list, the 1st KRRC killed section contains the names of men who died on the 2nd and 3rd Oct 1915. It does not follow that all the above men were wounded on these days, but it is possible. Certainly be worth getting a look at the 1st KRRC war diary for late Sep/early Oct 1915.

Best wishes,

Stuart

[MelPack]

Stuart

Great stuff ! I think that you have provided the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle.

Well done for persevering with the horrible Times casualty search.

Mel

[jainvince]

Mel and Stuart

Thanks for the answers, most valuable. Regarding Edmund Partington. He was with the Rifle Brigade but in a letter he mentions "He wrote again from France "I have transferred out of the Rifle Brigade into the RE..... I was very sorry to hear W Reeves had been wounded............."

Eddy later sent picture of Calvery Cross damaged by a German Shot. The cross has been destroyed but the figure of Christ has been left untouched and now stand unsupported with hands upraised on high - a wonderful picture of intercession. Eddy remarks "I am sending you this card to let you see what we see in reality". Wrote again thanking for Magazine which he looks forward to as "it makes him feel at home for a short time", adding "we are doing fine. I go to the trenches tonight ....and it's pouring down just now so I expect it will be up to the knees in mud but never mind, we are happy ... I like to read W Reeves' letters very much".

W Reeves wrote another letter from Hospital "I had a rough day and night but I am a lot better this morning, though I had a letter to tell me that Leonard Barker (one of the lads who were with George Howcroft) has landed in England seriously wounded. I hope he pulls through all right ... Remember me ......... I shall be a few weeks before I am in Dearnley again - that is the time I am longing for .... when the swelling goes down I have an operation to go through but the doctor says it is nothing serious".

The Magazine was published by St Andrews Church Dearnley which is why there are religious comments etc.

Bernard

[jainvince]

Bringing this post on Wilfred Reeves further up to date here are the Magazine entries for December 1915 & January 1916

December 1915

Wrote "I see Harry Tattersall has enlisted. I wish him the best of luck ... I had Fred Walton paying me a visit the other week". Wrote again from hospital in Scotland "I went through an operation on Nov 8th (1915); have got over it and am going on fine and I think it has set me right ..... I......shall be able to get up again early next week .... the chaps say it is cold outside but I could stand that.....The people roundabout are very good in coming to visit us and bring plenty of books for us to read".

January 1916

Wrote "I am out of hospital at last and on my way to recovery at a convalescence home...... I got a parcel from the Girls at St Andrew's school..... I am sure that the chaps in the trenches that get one like it will jump with delight". Home on furlough called to see vicar on the 18th (January 1916). He looked very well after his wounds and the chat was most interesting. It was pleasant to hear him speak of the kind way in which he and others treated the German soldiers. The best soldiers are merciful.

Please note that dates in brackets are the date of the Magazine in which comment made not necesssarily actual date of visit.

Bernard