Pte W Seymour

 

William Seymour was born at Bradfield in 1893 and prior to the War was a gardener. He lived at 64 Mayridge Hill Cottages with his father Joseph, a brickmaker, his mother Clara, brother Albert and a sister, also Clara. Another brother, Frederick, had died in August 1913 a year after leaving school. He developed a malignant disease that necessitated the amputation of one leg and seemed to recover, but in May 1913 he became paralysed, dieing three months later.

 

William Seymour volunteered immediately on the outbreak of war, probably joining the 5th Battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, the Kitchener battalion formed at Reading on 25 August 1914, or the 6th Battalion formed from the overspill, though at the time of his death he was serving in the 2nd Battalion. The 2nd Battalion was one of the two pre-war Regular battalions and at the outbreak of war was in India at Jhansi. The battalion sailed from Bombay on the troopship SS Dongala on 27 September 1914 and reached Liverpool on 23 October. They arrived at Le Havre on 5 November and moved up to trenches at Fauquissart. The trenches were terribly wet and cold and the men suffered greatly from trench foot and other complaints brought on by the sudden change of climate. William Seymour must have been posted to the 2nd Battalion as a battle casualty replacement.

 

The battalion took part their first real action at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle between 10 and 15 March 1915 where they lost 75 men killed, 223 wounded and 17 missing.

 

William Seymour was originally posted as missing after the battle and the Rector records that there was “still no news” in August 1915. It was not until July 1916, over a year after his death, that he was finally declared killed in action on 15 March 1915. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the memorial at Le Touquet.