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“If you think, have a kindly thought, If you speak, speak generously, Of those who as heroes fought And died to keep you free”
Set up by the Black Country Society. Our aim is to highlight local men who died in the Great War and how they have been commemorated on war memorials. Its scope covers the whole of the present Dudley Municipal Borough and therefore includes the places which have come within its bounds since 1914.
There are over fifty memorials and the number of names exceeds three thousand. Research on the names has been extensive but inevitably errors and omissions occur. We would like to hear about them concentrated on life and work before 1914, involvement in military campaigns and where each man is buried or commemorated.
John Reading was the third of five sons on active service from the family of Mr and Mrs A. Reading, who lived at 'Wychbury', Norton Road, Stourbridge. He attended Stourbridge Grammar School from 1904 to 1909 and before his military service had been a bank clerk at Brierley Hill. He volunteered for the Worcester Territorials in April 1915 and joined the 1/7th Battalion. He was soon recommended for a commission and after training re-joined the battalion as Second Lieutenant. They were stationed in the Somme sector which was relatively quiet in the Autumn of 1915. Most of the time was spent at Hébuterne, a pleasant village, except for its proximity to the trenches. When the winter came, the appalling rain soaked the men continuously and the long sick-lists led to wastage greater than that caused by battle. In February 1916 the battalion took over the front line at Fonquevillers. Here there were German raids and shelling to contend with, some of which led to casualties. On 29th April Second Lieutenant John Reading was killed as a result of a mortar bomb exploding beside him. He was 22 years of age and the second of the brothers to die. He was buried in Hébuterne Cemetery (1 J 22) and commemorated on the Stourbridge, Oldswinford, St. Thomas's church and King Edward VI College Memorials. There is a fine individual memorial to him at St. Thomas's church. His brother, Captain Frederick Reading of the 3rd Worcesters was awarded the Military Cross in 1918 and the family came to own the local wine merchants, Nickolls and Perks and Rutlands.
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Stourbridge, West Midlands, DY8 1TD
