204972 Pte. Jeremiah Reid British Army 2/8th Btn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment from:196 Hornby St, Liverpool (d.28 Mar 1918) Jeremiah Reid was my late Dad's older brother b. 27 February 1899 in Liverpool and baptised on 3 March 1899 @ St Augustine's RC Church, Gt Howard St., Liverpool. His parents (my grandparents) were Christopher & Christina Reid, both of whom were born in Liverpool. My grandfather Christopher was a merchant seaman.
On 18 September 1915 my uncle Jeremiah enlisted into the Kings Liverpool Regt., in Liverpool and undertook training in nearby Seaforth Barracks. He would have been 16 years old at the time. His regimental number was 46128 and his description was as follows:-
height - 5 ft 2 1/4 ins,
weight - 104 lbs,
33" Chest - girth fully expanded,
Range of expansion - 2 1/2",
During his time in the army he was transferred to several regiments including Herefordshire Regt., Monmouth Regt., Base Depot and finally Royal Warwickshire Regt.
At one point he acquired another army number, 228873 or 2128873 (I can't quite make it out from the damaged document) but on transfer to the Warwickshire's he became Pte Jeremiah Reid 315136.
On 28th March 1918 my uncle was killed in action, in the field, aged just 19 years. Theatre of War is given as - France & Flanders. Sadly, we have no photographs of him. Like thousands of other parents, on receipt of this dreadful news my grandparents were devastated.
My family have been researching our family history for about 30 years now and, thanks to a cousin who discovered a bag containing old documents in his deceased mother's loft some years ago, we have been able to piece together a short story to our uncle Jeremiah.
On finding his details on CWGC website my sister and I travelled over to France to 'claim the grave' in our late Dad's memory and I am now working on our family history book in which I'm incorporating every letter, document and detail I can find. I have photographs of the grave which is situated in Roye New British Cemetery, France.
Pte Jeremiah Reid 325136 will always remain in our thoughts and in our writings for future generations.
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