This article was first published by the Pirton Magazine in November 2005, and is provided courtesy of the magazine, the editor Derek Jarrett. Further acknowledgments appear at the end of the article.

Gunner ALBERT REYNOLDS

In the series of the men whose names appear on our War Memorial, we tell the story of another victim in the last year of that great tragedy Private Walter Reynolds.

A Second Tragedy in This Pirton Family

Eleswhere we tell told the story of the death of Private Walter Reynolds. Now, eight months later we write of the death of his brother, Albert. Eight months later – exactly the interval separating their deaths in 1918. The blow to the Reynolds family is too hard to realize.

Albert, like all the family, was a true Pirton man and, as such, knew the countryside well.  He will have spent hours playing and working on the land surrounding our small village and turned his knowledge to good effect when he left school. On leaving school he went to Kings Walden, living with his eldest brother Jacob and wife Martha who had a three year old daughter, Alice. He then left his brother’s home and for some years worked for Mr. Payne, owner of Shillington Manor; one of the most important men in the area. Sometimes, when working at Shillington Manor he returned to the family home at no. 3 Wesley Cottages (now Pauline Hartley’s home behind the Village Stores). From Pirton he will have set out in the early hours on the trudge into Shillington, probably cutting across fields, sometimes scrounging a lift on a horse drawn vehicle. But for most of that time he will have lived in the servants' quarters at ‘The Manor’.

The staff at the Manor was considerable and his eye soon took in Caroline, a young and pretty cook at the Manor, They married and at some date not long before the outbreak of the War they moved as a married couple to work elsewhere.

Albert was the sixth born of twelve children to Lewis Reynolds, the local chimney sweep, and his wife Mary, who turned her hand to straw plaiting in between bearing children. When Lewis and Mary first married they had lived in one of the small cottages in Holwell Road (popularly called ‘Merry Arse Row’ (due to the large number of kids with no nappies on!) Jacob was born in 1876. Then followed

Peggy (1878), Daisy (1880), Mary (1882), William (1883), Albert in 1885, Abigail 1887; Sarah 1888, twins George and Harry in 1890, Emily 1893, Walter 1894. They all went to the village school; all played with friends, grew up and then sought jobs in the village. Their Uncle Jack, Aunt Ann and family lived next door. We know little about Albert as he became a young man although we do know he was a witness at the St. Mary’s ceremony when his brother William married Margaret Barnes in 1904. Their sister Abigail was also a witness.

After marrying, Albert and Caroline showed much initiative in moving elsewhere to further their income. Seemingly, the combination of a gamekeeper and a cook made finding employed not too difficult.  It seems that from Shillington they moved north to work on an estate in Yorkshire. Albert’s expertise as a gamekeeper, probably responsible for raising birds for shooting parties, increased the family income.

 Sadly, we do not have a detailed timetable for Albert and Caroline’s moves, but probably not too long before the outbreak of the War, they moved to Windlesham in Surrey. Their home at Laurel Cottage, one of a number of terraced cottages, probably belonged then to a nearby estate. Certainly, no 2 in Kennel Lane as it is now, was built in 1843. It was there, in this quiet part of Surrey that Caroline gave birth to their only child – how we would like to know something of any offspring!

Much  of  this  part  of  Surrey  with  its  lovely  rolling  heathland  became  a  major  area  for establishing army  camps in the nineteenth century. Nearby  Camberley was nothing

before the Royal Military Academy moved to its present site there in 1812. It was in Camberley that Albert enlisted in 1916. He became Gunner/Driver 90497 of the 139th Heavy Battery., Royal Garrison Artillery. The RGA was responsible for the heavy, large calibre guns and howitzers that were positioned some way behind the front line.

The139th Battalion moved to France in August 1916, Albert joined them in January 1917.

Injuries, often the result of wartime accidents as much as enemy action, were commonplace. In July, Albert suffered a fractured ankle and return to England, recuperating in Leeds. It must have been a severe fracture for he remained there until November 1917.

Army action was also required in Ireland and from Leeds he was transferred across the Irish Sea.  However, he was able to make the rather circuitous journey with a short leave in Pirton and, one imagines to his wife and child in Windlesham. It was to be the last time he saw his parents who now had all six of their sons in the army. The anxiety and fears of Lewis and Mary Reynolds must have been intense and whatever they really felt, the newspapers wrote of their courage and bravery. “Few families have a better record of war service than the Reynolds Family.”

The posting in Ireland was brief and he soon moved on to an army base in Winchester. In March 1918 his brother Walter was killed, Albert was unable to return to Pirton to console his parents. The following month he returned to France and took part in the major fighting to stem the German onslaught – he survived. But his life was soon to be cut short.

On 8th August the British forces attacked and, unusually, advanced six miles. We cannot be sure that one description that survives of the night of 8th/9th August was the one in which Albert was involved, but much of it tells us something of the awfulness of that time:

That night: It was utterly still. Vehicles made no sound on the marshy ground ... The silence played on our nerves a bit. As we got our guns into position you could hear drivers whispering to their horses and men muttering curses under their breath, and still the silence persisted, broken only by the whine of a stray rifle bullet or a long range shell passing high overhead ... we could feel that hundreds of groups of men were doing the same thing - preparing for the heaviest barrage ever launched.

At 4.20 am the next day:
all hell broke loose and we heard nothing more. The world was enveloped in sound and flame, and our ears just couldn't cope. The ground shook.

After the initial advance the resistance stiffened. Somewhere in the fighting on this summer’s day in 1918.Albert Reynolds was severely injured. A local newspaper of the time wrote: "Whilst lying in the makeshift hospital in France, he seemed to realize that his end was near.’ He wrote, or more likely dictated for someone else to write, a last letter to his wife Caroline".

He died of his awful wounds the following day, 9th August. He is buried at the Pernois British cemetery at Halloy-Les-Pernois in the Somme (Ref. III. B. 14)

This seemingly gentle, country-loving man, devoted wife and father, was the twenty-sixth Pirton victim of the war that seemed to go on for ever.  It is recorded that he was considerate to all, that nothing was too much trouble if it meant a kindly action to others. He seemed to make friends wherever he went and whilst in the hospital in Leeds he became adept at making articles for local Red Cross sales.  ‘He became a favourite with the local ladies of the Red Cross for his readiness and cheerfulness to help in any way he could.

We know something of his parents and they rest in St. Mary’s churchyard. The headstone tells of a family who suffered such awful losses, two sons killed in the last 11 months of the war. The inscription reads: “Father & Mother & two sons sacrificed in the Great War. Mary Ann Reynolds died 22 Feb 1934; also Albert Reynolds died 9 August 1918, age 34, also Walter Reynolds died 4 December 1917, age 23, also Lewis Reynolds died 26 Dec 1922, age 78”.

Of Albert’s wife Caroline, we have found nothing, nor of their child. Through the good services of a Winsdlesham estate agent, the location of their cottage has been established as no 2 Laurel Cottage in Kettle Lane, Windlesham. We have written to the present occupants in the hope that a picture of the cottage might be sent to us. Like properties in Pirton it has almost certainly undergone much change in the past ninety years. Of a humble area, Kettle Lane is now described as being in a ‘stunning semi-rural setting with views over adjoining paddocks close to the centre of Windlesham village’.

*** For this article, our thanks to: Aubrey Reynolds, Clare Baines, Denise Marshall, Helen Hofton, Jonty Wild www.pirton.org.uk, Lynda Smith www.roll-of-honour.com, Allan Grant, Edward & Elliot -  Windlesham Estate Agents and, of course, ‘A Foot on Three Daisies”, Pirton’s wonderful history book.

Points of contact are:
Pirton Website Jonty Wild via jontywild@pirton.org.uk

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Please get in touch jontywild@pirton.org.uk

Also if anyone would like copy of any Pirton WW1 war grave or memorial please contact Jonty Wild, digital copies for personal use will be provided free of charge to relatives, photographs can be provided for a small charge.

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