Commonwealth First World War Gave - Private Reginald John Pope 4th Battalion Wiltshire Regiment and his brother Frederick Elias Pope - Prisoner of War in Germany

For the month of November in honour of Armistice Day we will be revisiting the local war graves I have researched.  This post was originally published 26th September 2012.

 

 

 

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

 At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them".

 

 

 

Reginald John Pope was born on 22nd July 1900 in Whymondham Norfolk to Elias Pope, a crockery hawker, and his wife and Sarah Elizabeth Betts.  Reginald's family were travelling folk who sold their wares up and down the country.  On the 1911 Census the family are shown living in 'a gypsy caravan' at Blackamore Lane, Maidenhead, Berkshire, with their eight children, many of whom, including Reginald were attending a local school. Sometime before 1916 Reginald and his family settled down at 22 Kings Street where Elias became a coffee dealer.

 

Reginald served in the 4th Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment and may have fought in the Battle of Megidoo. Sadly he died in Maidenhead on 19th October 1918. On 6th November 1919 the following announcement appeared in the Maidenhead Advertiser:

"Mr. and Mrs. E Pope desire to to thank all kind friends for sympathy shown to them in the loss of their two sons; also flowers sent."

 

Reginald's brother also served in the First World War with the 1/5th Battalion Durham Light Infantry. He became a prisoner of war  in Germany after being reported as missing on 9th April 1918. Frederick was later discharged as unfit due to disability in September 1919.