An emotive Battle of the Aisne Officer casualty group awarded to notable sportsman Second Lieutenant A.B. Read, 1st Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry who having been educated at Mill Mead School, Shrewsbury and subsequently Sherborne School would play a solitary game for the Barbarians Rugby Team against Cardiff and would also be a notable cricketer, playing for the Marylebone Cricket Club (M.C.C.) before the war. He would be commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Somerset Light Infantry in December 1913, joining the 1st Battalion with whom he would see service on the Western Front from August 1914, before he was killed in action on 16th September 1914 when struck by shrapnel during the Battle of the Aisne. He is remembered on several Memorials including the Marylebone Cricket Club Members Memorial at Lord’s Cricket Ground and on the Surrey County Cricket Club Roll of Honour. He is buried in Vailly British Cemetery, France.
Group of 4: 1914 Star and clasp 5th Aug-22nd Nov 1914; (2.LIEUT. A.B. READ. SOM:L.I.) British War Medal and Victory Medal; (2.LIEUT. A.B. READ.) Great War Memorial Plaque; (ARTHUR BEDDOME READ) housed in fitted glazed frame.
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine
Arthur Beddome Read was born on 20th January 1891, the only son of Robert Arthur Read and Maud E. Read of Avalon, Grange Road, Sutton, Surrey and the grandson of Colonel R.H. Beddome, Madras Staff Corps. He attended Mill Mead School, Shrewsbury, and also attended Sherborne School (Abbeylands) from September 1904 – July 1910. He would be awarded the Bowen History prize, and would feature in the school’s 1st XI cricket team in 1908, 1909 and 1910 when he was the captain. He would also participate in Public School boxing in 1909 and 1910 being awarded a Silver Medal.
Read was a Colour Sergeant in the Officer Training Corps and was a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club (M.C.C.). A fine Rugby forward he would play for Surrey and also the Richmond Club until the 1913-14 and made a singular appearance for the Barbarians against Cardiff. He also played for the Army against Sandhurst and Woolwich at Queen’s Club, and for Sutton Cricket Club (Surrey) in the 1913 season and is noted as having a good average.
Read would be Gazetted to the Special Reserve in April 1912 and commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the Somerset Light Infantry in December 1913, joining the 1st Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry with whom he would see service on the Western Front being killed in action on 16th September 1914 when he was struck by shrapnel during the Battle of the Aisne.
Arthur is remembered on a number of memorials to the Great War, the Marylebone Cricket Club Members Memorial at Lords Cricket Ground. The Shrewsbury Mill Mead School, Old Boys War Memorial, Surrey County Cricket Club, WW1 Roll of Honour, in a Memorial Painting at Sutton Christ Church. The King Charles the Martyr Church Memorial in Tunbridge Wells and he is buried in Vailly British Cemetery.
A history of the Battalion gives the following details for 16th September 1914:
‘Fine-day. Improved shelter trenches and fire trenches and got quite comfortable. A French battery came into action in front of ‘B’ Company’s trenches. It was soon located by a German aeroplane and was heavily shelled. Several shells burst in ‘B’ Companies trenches, and casualties occurred among officers and men who happened to be outside the trenches. 2nd Lieutenant Read and 4 men were killed and Lieutenant Newton and 5 men wounded. In the morning there had been some alarm owing to a Small Arms Ammunition cart being hit and exploding cartridges in all directions. 2nd Lieutenant Read and others buried at 7.00pm today.
‘A French Battery in rear of us sent up a section of guns which took up a position actually just in front of our trenches. They did some wonderful shooting, but as I was afraid, drew fire on to us. We were unluckily just outside our dugouts when they opened fire first. Poor Read was killed just as he made a dive for our dugout, I being just behind him. Poor Newton caught another burst just as he ran in afterwards and was very badly wounded, but I managed to get him under cover. We did not get anything quite so near afterwards, luckily, as there was no room for me. I was so sorry to lose them both, as we had got on well together and they were a great help and never too tired to go out on any reconnaissance or visiting groups. Four men were killed and eight wounded, but I managed to get stretchers up when the shells were not quite so thick. We buried Read and the four men the same night, a person reading the service’
