West Berkshire War Memorials

 

Lieutenant, 1st South Wales Borderers.

 

The name of Blackall-Simonds is synonymous with the Reading brewing dynasty founded when William Simonds began brewing in 1774. It was his son, William Blackall Simonds, who built the business from a small scale operation behind a pub to a commercial brewery. The Blackall name honoured his mother Mary Blackall who married William Simonds in 1756, it was to become a distinctive family name for generations to come.

 

George’s father George Simonds was not given the Blackall name but adopted it by deed poll following the death of his elder brother Blackall Simonds in 1905. Initially George decided against joining the family firm, instead he studied sculpture becoming a successful sculptor producing a number of public works, the most famous of which is the Falconer a large version of which stands in New York’s Central Park, locally his best known work is the Maiwand Lion in the Forbury Gardens, Reading, a war memorial commemorating the men of the 66th Berkshire Regiment, lost in the Battle of Maiwand and other engagements in Afghanistan in 1879-80. In 1903 he retired from sculpture and finally joined the brewery, becoming chairman in 1903, a post he held to his death in 1929. George Prescott Blackall-Simonds was his only son and his loss in 1914 hit his parents hard; his father came out of retirement from sculpture to design Bradfield’s impressive war memorial that stands on the corner of Junction Road and Union Road. George was born in 1881 gaining Prescott as a forename from his mother, American Gertrude Prescott, like his father he took on the Blackall-Simonds name in 1903. The family lived in Bradfield House.

 

Young George joined the army and saw service in South Africa as a railway staff officer; when war broke out in 1914 he was called up, initially to the Officer Reserve (a pool of unattached officers available for allocation to units in need). Soon after the start of the war he was posted to the 1st South Wales Borderers as a replacement, arriving at the front on the 19th September together with two other Lieutenants (Connaughts & Gilbert) and 190 other ranks. At this time the battalion was heavily embroiled in desperate fighting, the stalemate that was to create the hell of trench warfare had not quite yet been reached. Both sides still had ambitions to break through and inflict a crushing defeat on the enemy, as a result fighting was almost constant.

 

Following the battle of the Marne the initial German advance had been halted and both sides were making attempts to outflank the other in the phase of the war known as the ‘Race to the Sea’. The 1st South Wales Borderers were part of the 1st Division of I Corps of the British Expeditionary Force, commanded by Sir Douglas Haig. Although it was II Corps that had taken the brunt of the early fighting at Mons and the subsequent retreat I Corps had also seen plenty of action by late September. On 25th September 1914 the 1st South Wales Borderers were in Vendresse in the Ardennes region of northern France, the Germans, still trying to find a way to break through attacked their line. A personal diary reads:

 

“The most ghastly day of my life and yet to one of the proudest because my Regiment did its job and held on against heavy odds. At 4.15am Germans attacked. Main attack apparently against my regiment, which is the left of our line. D and A Companies in the trenches. B and C hustled up to support, and soon the whole place alive with bullets. News comes that they are trying to work round our left. The CO asked the Welsh Regiment to deal with this, which it did. Poor D Company had to face the music more than anyone else.

 

Presently the news comes that the Germans are in a quarry in the middle of our line, i.e that our line was pierced. C Company drove them clean out. About 3pm, things began to quieten down, D and A companies had done their share of the work on the right and left. We were able to reorganise more or less, except for D Company’s far advanced trenches, and those we searched at night and found James wounded, Sills and Welby killed.

 

Total casualties. Killed Welby, Simonds, Coker, Sills and 86 men; wounded - Pritchard, James and Gwynn slightly, and 95 men; and missing 12. These 12 were of D Company, and apparently surrendered. May they be spared to reach England again and be tried by court martial and get what they deserve. Never has the 24th surrendered yet, and in spite of casualties the rest of the Regiment stuck to it and fought as Englishman and 24th men could fight.

 

We are now left with three Officers each in three companies, and only two in the fourth, instead of six in each. A sad, sad business, but everyone played up, and as the French say, “Qui perd, gagne”. We have lost men and officers, but have again won a name for doing what it is our duty to do and in this case we held a very important line without giving a yard.”

 

George Prescott Blackall Simonds was dead, his body was never recovered. He is remembered on the memorial to the fallen at La Ferte-sous-Jouarre.

 

Back in Bradfield he is, of course, commemorated on the village war memorial that his father designed, but he is also commemorated in the village church of St Andrew in a stained glass window. The window depicts St George, with a head bearing a remarkable similarity to another George – Prescott Blackall Simonds, bearing the inscription:

 

To the Glory of God and in loving memory of George Prescott Blackall Simonds Lieutenant 1st S Wales Borderers 24th Regt. Killed while leading the attack in a quarry at Vendresse in France 26th Sept 1914.