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

Private WALTER 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.

From a Pirton Family Torn Apart By the Great War

The wealth that had come to the cities by late Victorian times had largely passed Pirton by. The village families were, in the main, fairly poor and, above all, large. Looking at the small cottages in the village now, then with their simple two up and two down rooms – it seems unlikely that there were families of six, eight, even ten living there.

Yet, so it was with the Reynolds family who, by 1886, lived at no. 3 Wesley cottages. This was one of the small cottages behind Cromwell Terrace, where Pauline Hartley now lives (just behind the Village Stores). Head of the household was Lewis Reynolds, a chimney sweep who carried his brushes around on a cart pulled by a donkey. His wife, Mary, earned what she could as one of the many straw plaiters in the village. They had ten children. When first married they had lived in ‘New Road’, now Holwell Road cottages, where William was born in 1884. Then followed Albert in 1884, Abigail 1886; Sarah 1888, twins George and Harry in 1890, Emily 1893, Walter 1894. We are less than certain of Jacob’s birth year and, so far, an unnamed daughter.

They all went to the village school; all played with friends, grew up and then sought jobs in the village. They shared the hardships and joys of a close family. Their Uncle Jack, Aunt Ann and family lived next door. Life was not easy, but all seemed well in the first decade of the 20th century.

Then came the hammer blow of the Great War in 1914. It soon became clear that the war was not, as the chiefs of staff had predicted, going to be over by the first Christmas. The war raged, then stagnated in the trenches of Western Europe, producing terrible numbers of wounded and dead. It just happened that the Reynolds boys were living at this wrong time; they were just what this war of madness and massacre embraced.

Whatever the six sons felt, the newspapers wrote of their courage and bravery. “Few families have a better record of war service than the Reynolds Family ”, one journalist far from The Front wrote. But their parents at home must have lived each day in great fear for their village sons. Walter and Albert both died in that ‘war to end all wars’.

Walter, the youngest son, was born in 1894 and appears on the village school admissions register of 1896/97. Like the heads of many Pirton families Lewis, in addition to his work as a chimney sweep, had a small plot of land; his plot was off Holwell Road (behind where Andy & Helen Hofton now live). On leaving school Walter helped his father on that smallholding and was described as having “a fine, upright character, his considerateness and kindliness being a comfort to those dear to him”.

Like his brothers and so many young men in the village, Walter had answered the call that ‘Your Country Needs You’; indeed, still a teenager, he joined the Hitchin Territorials before the War. A Pirton man in all things, he is recorded as enlisting in the village, as army personnel toured the most rural parts to gain more men. He became Private 242137in the Hertfordshire Regiment, later to be transferred to 2nd/5th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment. As fatalities grew there were many changes of battalion and regiment in the chaos of that time.

On 24th May 1916, Walter was posted to France. The battles in which the Gloucestershire Regiments were involved recall some of the most awful horrors of the War – The Somme, Albert, Arras and Vimy Ridge. Records of where individual soldiers fought were rarely kept; the few that were have been destroyed. It is likely that Walter spent virtually all of his nineteen months after being sent to France, in the front line.

To his family in Pirton, each day and week must have seemed an eternity as very little news filtered, or was allowed to filter, through. The generals spoke of victories, to the men and their families there was no victory - just mud and death. From the Reynolds’ family of ten children, six were in the army. In addition to Walter there were:

Private William Kings Shropshire Light Infantry, an officer’s servant in France. His home was at Edenbridge in Kent where in peacetime he lived with his wife and five children.

Driver Albert, RGA, from Windlesham in Surrey where, in peaceful times, he lived with his wife and one child. He spent time in hospital with crushed ankle, then in France. (He was killed in 1918)

Driver Harry RHA, who was badly gassed in France, later to return to his regiment in Yorkshire. He was married.

Private George, Suffolk Regiment, who had not been to The Front, but spent some time necessarily helping his father at home.

Jacob, who was married with six sons, was also in the army.

Emily, Walter’s sister, was married to Private Percy Dear, of the Herts Regiment who was wounded in 1917.

Many of the Reynolds’ boys had married and set up homes away from the village, but now it was a family being torn apart, a family in peril.

In October 1917, Walter came home on leave. We can imagine him proudly arriving in uniform, feted by his parents, his remaining siblings in the village and friends that he had known for years. Home to the cottage just off the High Street, walking down and casting an eye over his father’s plot in Holwell Road. On 28th October his leave finished and he returned to the appalling conditions of war.

It seems that he went to The Front near Cambrai, the scene of repeated fighting. The exact circumstances of his death are uncertain, but we know that whilst he and some colleagues were resting on their way back to the Front Line, a nearby ammunition dump exploded. Walter’s death was instant. The date was 2nd December 1917* ; Walter was 23.

Less than two months after seeing their son, Lewis and Ann’s joy turned to grief. A Wesleyan Chaplain, Rev J Panton, wrote to them at their home, still no. 3 Wesley Cottages. He explained the awfulness of the explosion that had caused their son’s death; no detail as to whether it was an accident or the result of enemy gunfire – but, perhaps, that kind of detail did not matter to Lewis and Ann.

They must have read the letter from the army chaplain with unbelievably heavy hearts: “I read the burial service over the spot where he and others were killed and their remains interred. I want to say how deeply his loss is regretted by all who knew him. He attended my services constantly and we have worshipped together in many strange places. May our Heavenly Father comfort you!"

His commanding officer, CF Hamilton added his own words: “These men are so splendid and you have every reason to be proud of them, but it is hardest of all for you at home, as, the men themselves say ‘You must try and keep a brave heart as he would wish and a bright hope for the future. God bless and comfort you’”

Walter Reynolds is commemorated at the Cambrai Memorial, Louverval, Nord, France (Ref. Panel 5).

Eight months later, the family went through a repeat of the tragedy when another of their sons, Albert, was killed at The Front. A simple Pirton family had been ripped apart through the war. Mary had long been an invalid in the family home. Aubrey Reynolds who now lives in Priors Hill can well remember visiting her there and recounts how she spent many years as an invalid in bed. She died in 1934, aged 84; Lewis had died in 1922.

The parents rest in St. Mary’s churchyard. Read the headstone, which 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.”

Aubrey, son of George – one of the Reynolds twins – recently said that he cannot remember his family talking about the devastating events in the Reynolds family life; perhaps the grief, like that of so many in the village who had suffered a loss in the war, was buried away, too.

*His death is variously reported as being 2nd, 3rd, 4th December 1917.

*** 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 and, of course, ‘A Foot on Three Daisies”.

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