BORN – Oswestry
HOMEFRONT – Place / Occupation / St Oswald’s Church
JOB – Draper’s Apprentice
UNIT – 2/7 Bn Lancashire Fusiliers
RANK – Private 40016
THEATRE – Kaiser Offensive / Operation Michael. Somme. Quentin. 2/7 Bn Lancashire Fusiliers. 21 March 1918.
DIED – Killed in Action 21 March 1918. Aged 21.
BURIED – Pozieres Memorial (grave unknown). (CWGC)
Godfrey Reynolds was born in 1896 and christened on September 24, 1896 in Oswestry. In 1901 his parents William Henry and Harriet Ann (nee Weatherby) Reynolds and siblings Leonard Weatherby (b. 1895), Norah Weatherby (b. 1899) were living at Chirk Road, Whittington. HIs father, William Henry Reynolds, was Relieving Officer and Registrar of Births and Death. By 1911, aged 14, Godfrey was working as a Drapers Apprentice and living at 70 Park Avenue, Oswestry with his parents and his two older siblings and a younger brother Henry Arthur, (b. 1903).
Godfrey enlisted in the 6 Bn Kings Shropshire Light Infantry, age 18, in September 1914, and was one of the Oswestry Pals (Private 12351) who had paraded in Cae Glas Park, and departed the same month. However, his obituary records that he did not go out to France until early in 1917 and he was not awarded the 1915 Star. It is not known what he was doing during the time between enlistment and going to France. In autumn of 1917 year he was invalided home suffering with trench foot. At this time it is possible he was serving with 5 Bn KSLI. He returned to France in January 1918. The next month 5 Bn KSLI was disbanded with men transferred to other units, including the Lancs. Fusiliers and it is probable that this is when and how Godfrey was transferred to 2/7 Bn Lancashire Fusiliers in 197 Brigade, 66 (2 East Lancashire) Division.
Godfrey was reported as missing since 21 March 1918, his parents received the news about a month later. In July 1918 they had not given up hope that he would be found and had placed a notice in the Border Counties Advertiser asking if anybody had heard of his whereabouts. Godfrey was later listed as KIA 21 March 1918. At this time the battalion was engaged in the Kaiser Offensive, Operation Michael. Godfrey is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial and has no known grave. He is also commemorated on the war memorial at St Oswald’s Church, Oswestry.
POINT OF INTEREST
Godfrey’s brother Leonard also enlisted serving in the Army Service Corps and later Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was wounded in October 1918, hit by rifle bullet in the left elbow, but survived the war.
Acknowledgements.
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