Private Joseph Charles Reed, (Northwold), 11th Essex KiA 22nd March 1918

This photograph appeared in the edition of the Norwich Mercury dated Saturday May 4 1918 along with the caption : Pte. J.C. Reed, son of Mr. J Reed, Northwold, killed in action.

 

Private REED, JOSEPH CHARLES

Service Number:………. 35906

Died:………………………….. 22/03/1918

Unit:……………………………..11th Bn., Essex Regiment

Commemorated:…………Arras Memorial

CWGC: www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1620348/reed,-joseph-...

 

Soldiers died in the Great War has Private 35906 Joseph Charles Reed recorded as born Mundford, resident Northwold and enlisted Norwich. He was Killed in Action on the 22nd March 1918 while serving in France & Flanders with the 11th Battalion, Essex Regiment. He was formerly 32217 Suffolk Regiment.

 

The Medal Index Card for Private 35906 J C Reed, Essex Regiment, is held at the National Archive under reference WO 372/16/177421

discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D4807649

 

His Service Records do not appear to have survived the incendiary attack during the Blitz on the Warehouse where all the Other Ranks Army Service Records were stored.

 

No obvious missing person enquiry received by the International Red Cross.

 

No match on Picture Norfolk, the County Image Archive.

 

The Government Probabte Service holds a Soldiers Will for 35906 Joseph Charles Reed who died on the 22nd March 1918.

probatesearch.service.gov.uk/Wills?Surname=Reed&Surna...

 

He is recorded on the Northwold Roll of Honour as Charles Reed.

www.roll-of-honour.com/Norfolk/Northwold.html

 

The March 2017 edition of the Northwold Village Magazine records that he was born Mundford in 1888 to John and Mary Ann Reed.

www.northwold.net/Mar2017_web.pdf

 

 

1888 – Birth…………………………..

 

There is no birth recorded anywhere in Norfolk or Suffolk for a Joseph Charles Reed at this time. There is however a Joseph Charles Read. His birth was registered with the Civil Authorities in the District of Thetford in Norfolk in the October to December quarter, (Q4), of 1888. Thetford Civil Registration would have included the Civil Parish of Northwold.

 

The most likely marriage of his parents was that of a Joseph Reed to a Mary Ann Sutterby that was recorded in the Swaffham District of Norfolk in the October to December quarter, (Q4), of 1881. There is no likely match for the marriage of a Joseph Read to a Mary in Norfolk from that time.

 

1891 Census of England and Wales

 

The 2 year old Joseph “Read”, born Mundford, Norfolk, was recorded living at a Cottage, Cranwich, Norfolk. This was the household of his parents, Joseph, (aged 30, Farm Labourer, born Northwold, Norfolk) and Mary Ann, (aged 28, born Didlington, Norfolk). Children living with them are John, (7, born Northwold), Lilly, (6, born Mundford), and Thomas, (2? Months?, born Cranwich).

 

1901 Census of England and Wales

 

The 13 year old Joseph C Reed, an Agricultural Labourer born Mundford, Norfolk, was recorded living at one of the Cranwich Cottages, Cranwich. This was the household of his parents, Joseph, (aged 42, a County Roadman, born Northwold, Norfolk), and Mary A., (aged 38, born Didlington, Norfolk). As well as Joseph their other children still single and living with them are:-

Sidney……………aged 15…..born Mundford….Agricultural Labourer

Thomas William…aged 11…..born Cranwich

Sarah M………….aged 8…….born Cranwich

Edgar Stearn(?)…..aged 5……..born Cranwich

 

1907 / 1908 Marriage?........................

 

On the 1911 Census Joseph Charles and his new wife Florence Gertrude state they have been married three years. However a search of the marriage records for England & Wales for a period five years either side of 1907 fails to bring up a marriage for both a Joseph C. Reed and a Joseph C. Read. I then tried tracking down his wife to see if I could identify the marriage from her side. However there are no obvious matches for a Florence G, born Cressingham, and of the right age, on earlier censuses.

 

1911 Census of England and Wales

 

The 23 year old Joseph Charles Reed, a Farm Labourer born Mundford, was recorded as the married head of the household on Cliff Road, Willougton, Lincolnshire. Living with him is his wife of three years, Florence Gertrude, (aged 28, born Little Cressingham, Norfolk). The couple have had two children so far, both then still alive. They were Charlie Balaam(?), (3, born Redbourne, Lincolnshire) and Sidney Bailam(?), (1, born Willoughton, Lincolnshire).

 

His parents were recorded living at a dwelling on Cranwich Road, Northwold. Joseph, (51, a County Council Roadman) and Mary Ann, (47), have been married for 30 years and have had 9 children, of which 8 were then still alive. Still single and living at home were Sarah, (19), Edgar, (16, General Farm Labourer) and Mary, (6, born Northwold). Also in the household is Joseph’s brother George Reed, (aged 57 and born Northwold). The column to record infirmities records that he has been an umbecile since the age of 6. He is stated to be living off an allowance.

 

Until September 1911 the quarterly index published by the General Registrars Office did not show information about the mothers maiden name. A check of the General Registrars Office Index of Birth for England and Wales 1911 – 1983 shows no likely additional children for parents Joseph and Mary using either the Reed or Read surname spelling.

 

1915 Norfolk Register of Electors……

 

This edition of the Register records both a Joseph Read and a Joseph Charles Read who were entitled to vote in the Northwold Ward in Parliamentary, County Coucil and Parish Councils. Joseph is a (male) householder of a dwelling house at Cross ways. He had move their since the 1914 edition, which had shown him at Thetford Road, Northwold.

 

Meanwhie Joseph Charles was the (male) householder of a dwelling house on Methwold Road, Northwold.

Source: www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2HTF-BJJ

 

 

On the day……………………………….

 

Early on the morning of 20th March 1918 the battalion arrived at Beugnâtre north of Bapaume. After morning baths at Bapaume and Favreuil that afternoon most of the battalion (except A Company and two platoons of B Company) travelled to Maricourt Wood to dig a trench called Lagnicourt Switch.

 

Around midnight the troops set off back to their camp at Beugny, which when reached was found to have been heavily shelled by the Germans as they began their 1918 Spring Offensive. The battalion proceeded to the Morchies sunken road and suffered many casualties there until around midday it went into action to attempt to slow the German advance which had taken British trenches. They were however forced back in the face of the German onslaught and many casualties were suffered around dusk as the majority of the battalion withdrew to the corps line.

 

After a fairly quiet, but unnerving night the enemy attack, the opening stages of the German 1918 Spring Offensive resumed on the morning of 22nd March 1918. A post-war history of the battalion described the day’s events and its aftermath:

 

“The early morning was again misty and advantage was taken of this by the enemy to place machine gun fire and trench mortars a short distance from the wire. Their movements were observed and from 7.30 a.m. until 11 a.m. a number were shot down. No communication had been established with the artillery, so that its fire could not be directed, but apart from this disadvantage the situation remained much the same until 4.30 p.m. when report came that the enemy had broken through the corps line to the north of Morchies and was moving south-west, rendering the position of the 18th Brigade [of which (11th Essex) battalion was a part] most critical.

 

By 6.30 p,m. it had become untenable, for the enemy penetrated the right flank and the Brigade was isolated, though for a time the stout resistance of two platoons of the Royal Scots afforded material aid. At midnight Brigade headquarters ordered withdrawal without waiting for relief. Buses were promised at the Monument, Favreuil-Sapignies road. but shells were falling around this point and no buses were available, so that the exhausted units of the Brigade staggered along the road to Buchanan Camp. All ranks fell asleep at each ten minutes’ halt, but there was no straggling, and at 6.30. a.m on March 23rd seven officers and 77 other ranks marched steadily into camp.

 

At 10 a.m. all men of the Battalion who were not in the fight were ordered to stand to ,and during the morning Captain Alexander and 80 other ranks dug a defensive line upon the ridge north-east of Aichet-le-Grand. The Germans had broken through at Mory and this work was done to arrest any further advance. The situation became easier during the day and the party was withdrawn early on the morning of March 24th. ‘Thus ended’ says the War Diary, ‘the Battalion’s part of the battle’.

 

The losses were very heavy. Ten officers were killed....and six wounded. Thirty-one other ranks were killed, 44 other ranks wounded and missing, 231 other ranks missing and 105 other ranks wounded - a total of 16 officers and 411 other ranks.”

www.chelmsfordwarmemorial.co.uk/first-world-war/chelmsfor...

 

From A Short History of the 6th Division by Thomas Owne Marden,

 

Reports from deserters that we were to be heavily attacked were persistent, and the Division stood to arms twice before 21st March. On 20th March aeroplane photos disclosed ammunition pits for seventy extra batteries opposite the divisional front, and when at 5 a.m. on 21st March the bombardment commenced, there was no doubt but that a real offensive had begun. Warning had been given overnight for all troops to be in battle positions by 5 a.m., but it came too late to stop working parties, and the reserve battalions of all brigades had marched ten miles before the battle commenced.

 

Fog favoured the Germans in that it prevented us seeing when the attack was launched, but every credit must be given them for the skill they evinced and the dash with which they pushed forward and brought up successive waves of attackers. By concentrating their efforts on the three main valleys, i.e. Noreuil Valley on our extreme left, Lagnicourt Valley in the centre and Morchies Valley on our extreme right, they avoided much of the fire which they would have encountered on the broad spurs, and thus worked round and isolated the garrisons of the latter. For five hours the bombardment continued with tremendous force, first with gas and H.E. on back areas to cut communications and disorganize reinforcements, later about 7 to 8 a.m. with smoke and H.E. on the forward system. The intensity of it may be gauged by the fact that four out of five concealed anti-tank guns were knocked out by direct hits.

 

This bombardment annihilated the garrisons of the forward system, and few survivors came back to the reserve line.

 

The only authenticated accounts of a successful resistance in the front system were from the 71st Infantry Brigade, (p. 047) where both 9th Norfolks and 2nd Sherwood Foresters repulsed the first attack. By 10.30 a.m. the enemy had nearly reached Noreuil and had driven back the 59th Division on our left, leaving the left flank of the 16th Infantry Brigade in the air, while its right flank went shortly afterwards, as the enemy captured Lagnicourt, driving in the Sherwood Foresters in the valley. The 16th Infantry Brigade was gradually squeezed out towards the corps line, where at 4 p.m. parties from the Divisional Bombing School counter-attacked and drove the enemy out of trenches on the immediate left. The 71st Infantry Brigade, with its right flank secure, threw back a defensive flank south-west of Lagnicourt, and successfully prevented issue from that village to the high ground. The enemy broke into Skipton Reserve Strong Point, but were thrown out again by a counter-attack of Norfolks and Leicesters.

 

Coming up a subsidiary valley the enemy nearly drove a wedge between 71st and 18th Infantry Brigades, but the 2nd D.L.I. counter-attacked gallantly and kept them out till dusk. On the right of the 18th Infantry Brigade, however, the enemy advanced up the Morchies Valley, capturing the left trenches of the 51st Division on our right at about 10 a.m.

 

The 2nd West Yorks, reinforced by two companies 11th Essex, gallantly led by Lt.-Col. Boyall, D.S.O., who was subsequently wounded and captured, drove back three attacks issuing from our support line. The 18th Infantry Brigade held on till 7 p.m. when, in trying to withdraw, it suffered heavy casualties. The last company was not overwhelmed till 8.30 p.m. The 18th and 71st Infantry Brigades, therefore, maintained their hold on the ground Lagnicourt and the Morchies Valley all day, though the enemy had penetrated far in rear on both flanks.

When darkness fell the remnants of the Division were back in the corps line, together with three battalions of the 75th Infantry Brigade (25th Division), the remaining troops (p. 048) of the Division not being strong enough to hold the line unaided. The 11th Cheshires were with 18th Infantry Brigade, 2nd South Lancs with 71st Infantry Brigade, and 8th Border Regiment with 16th Infantry Brigade.

 

The night was quiet, both sides preparing for the next day's struggle.

 

At 7.30 a.m. on 22nd March the 16th Infantry Brigade repulsed an attack, but the enemy renewed his efforts with great persistence, and with much heavy bombardment and trench-mortaring, at 9.30 a.m. and onwards in the vicinity of Vaux and Méricourt Woods. Though frequent counter-attacks were made, the troops were forced back little by little from the corps line towards some improvised trenches hastily dug under the C.R.E.'s (Col. Goldney) direction some 1,000 yards in rear, and manned partially by men from the Corps Reinforcement Camp under Major Jones of the 2nd D.L.I. As an example of the tenacious fighting, a sunken road which contained the Headquarters of the 16th and 71st Infantry Brigades changed hands three times. Throughout the day Lt.-Col. Latham, D.S.O., commanding 1st Leicesters, and Lt.-Col. Dumbell, D.S.O., commanding 11th Battalion Essex Regiment, distinguished themselves greatly in the defence of their sectors of the line. On the right of the Division the control had passed by dusk to the G.O.C., 75th Infantry Brigade (29th Division)--the 18th Infantry Brigade having only about 100 of all ranks left. On the left there was a large gap between the 16th Infantry Brigade and the 40th Division, which had been pushed up towards Vaux Vraucourt, and this the 6th Division had no troops with which to fill it. The enemy's pressure on the flanks of the 16th Infantry Brigade and in the centre on the 71st Infantry Brigade caused the line to fall back on the new Army line which was being dug and wired. This was done in good order, and at nightfall the weary remnants of the Division were relieved by the 41st Division and concentrated in the vicinity of Achiet, the artillery remaining (p. 049) behind and fighting in the subsequent withdrawal up to 26th March.

 

The Division had put up a resistance of which it had every reason to be proud, and which won for it the following letter from the G.O.C., Third Army (General Sir J. Byng):--

"I cannot allow the 6th Division to leave the Third Army without expressing my appreciation of their splendid conduct during the first stages of the great battle now in progress.

"By their devotion and courage they have broken up overwhelming attacks and prevented the enemy gaining his object, namely a decisive victory.

"I wish them every possible good luck."

 

To this magnificent result all ranks and all arms had contributed, and it is perhaps invidious to single out special instances for mention. The gallant stand of the 18th and 71st Infantry Brigades in the reserve line throughout the whole of the first day has already been referred to. Other outstanding incidents are the counter-attack by part of the 2nd D.L.I. against the enemy advancing from our support line, which relieved the pressure on the reserve line and captured four machine-guns; the holding out of a post of the West Yorks on the east side of the Morchies Valley from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. though completely commanded and surrounded; the counter-attacks by companies of the 1st Leicestershire Regiment and 9th Norfolk Regiment, which restored the situation in the Skipton Strong Point just east of Lagnicourt; that of a company of the 11th Leicestershire Regiment which drove the enemy out of the corps line when he had established a footing in it on the afternoon of the 21st; and that of the two platoons formed from the 16th Infantry Brigade School which regained posts on the extreme left of the corps line in the Divisional area on the evening of the 21st.

 

Another gallant deed must be mentioned. Sergt. Shales, (p. 050) R.E., and another signaller went from 18th Infantry Brigade Headquarters to a distributor station 400 yards distant during the full force of the bombardment, sorted out and tested wires in the open, and thus established communication between the front trenches and Battalion Headquarters. The burying and connecting up of the cable was to have been completed the day of the attack.

 

The casualties in the infantry were extremely heavy, amounting in the two days to some 3,900 out of a total for the Division of somewhat over 5,000 engaged, and out of a total trench strength of less than 5,000 infantry. The 18th Infantry Brigade suffered particularly heavily, being only able to muster in its three battalions 8 officers and 110 other ranks of those who had been through the fight, including 32 at Battalion Headquarters.

 

The Machine-gun Battalion did excellent service and great execution, many guns remaining in action until the enemy were within a few yards of them. Its losses were heavy--14 officers and 280 other ranks.

 

The field companies suffered heavily, and rendered good service as infantry. Special mention may be made of the action of 12th Field Company under Capt. Langley, who rallied some 300 stragglers of various units and filled a gap between the 18th Infantry Brigade and troops on its left.

 

The 11th Leicesters, under the gallant leading of Major Radford, fought splendidly, losing 14 officers and over 200 other ranks.

 

The artillery performed magnificent services, particularly on the 21st March. All guns that were not destroyed by the enemy's bombardment were fought until all the ammunition was expended or the enemy's infantry reached their position. The gunners enjoyed the novel experience of firing over open sights and seeing the effect of their fire, and not only with their guns but with rifles and Lewis guns did they inflict very heavy casualties on the (p. 051) enemy. The 42nd Battery, having kept their three forward guns in action after our infantry had fallen back behind them, succeeded in bringing the two that were not destroyed away, under the very noses of the enemy and through a heavy barrage and machine-gun fire. The forward section of the 53rd Battery had one gun destroyed. Lieut. Reeves got the other into the open, and, after firing 850 rounds with it over open sights and having exhausted his ammunition, brought back his detachment and the breech-block. The forward section of the 87th Battery continued firing until rushed by the enemy's infantry. Sergt. Pengelly of the 112th Battery, who was in command of a 15-pounder in an anti-tank position, having had his gun destroyed in the preliminary bombardment, fought for two days with the infantry, in command of a platoon, and did great execution himself with a pickaxe. A forward gun of the 110th Battery was fought until all its ammunition was expended, and the breech-block was then removed with the enemy almost on the top of the gun. For over seven hours the main battery fired on the enemy at ranges from 1,200 to 600 yards, expending over 2,400 rounds. The forward gun of the 111th Battery, after expending all its ammunition (500 rounds), largely over open sights, was withdrawn and brought into action again in the main position, a team coming up in full view of the enemy, and under very heavy shelling and a hail of bullets, for the purpose. The 112th Battery had two guns in action in advance of the corps line. These remained in action until all their ammunition was expended, and the detachments then withdrew with all their wounded and the breech-blocks of their guns, the enemy being by this time actually on the wire of the corps line.

 

The instances quoted are only typical of the conduct of the whole of the artillery of the Division, which fully justified the very high reputation it has always enjoyed, and the confidence which the infantry of the Division has always felt in its own artillery.

 

The (p. 052) morning of the 23rd March found the remnants of the Division, less artillery, assembled about Achiet-le-Grand and Bihucourt. The survivors of the 18th Infantry Brigade numbered 8 officers and 110 other ranks; those of the 71st Infantry Brigade 11 officers and 279 other ranks. Each of these brigades had had a trench strength on the morning of the 21st of just over 1,800 all ranks. Figures for the 16th Infantry Brigade are not available. The Division was most fortunate in having very few senior officers killed, though many were wounded. The most noticeable casualties among the killed were Major Lyon, 2nd Brigade, R.F.A., Majors Williamson and Wingate, D.S.O., M.C., R.E., and Capt. Harbottle, M.C., 1st Leicesters.

 

Even after relief the Division was not able to enjoy the rest it had so richly deserved, and of which it stood so much in need. The further progress of the enemy's attack and constant alarms necessitated its preparing and taking up a position of readiness covering Achiet, throughout the 23rd and the 24th.

 

On the 25th March it entrained for the north, to join the Second Army in its old haunts in the Ypres Salient.

www.gutenberg.org/files/20115/20115-h/20115-h.htm#page044

 

 

Mildly photoshopped to minimise impact of damage present on the original image.

 

Done