Hopes grow of tracing fallen (From Herald Series)

Hopes grow of tracing fallen

8:29am Tuesday 5th August 2008

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Three Oxfordshire soldiers could be among the 400 bodies recently discovered in a mass First World War grave in France.

The remains of hundreds of Australian and British troops, killed in fighting at Fromelles in July 1916, are to be individually reburied in a new cemetery close to the battlefield, with named headstones if their identities can be confirmed.

Among the British units taking part in the battle was the 2/4th Battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry - a Territorial Army unit formed in Oxford in September 1914.

After reading our story, war historian John Blakeman, of Newlands Close, Eynsham, searched through archive material and discovered that 11 of its men died at Fromelles, of whom three do not have marked graves.

They are:

• Frederick William Bateman, a 25-year-old private whose parents, Esther and Frederick Bateman, lived at 49 Botley Road, West Oxford.

• Sidney Butler, a 19-year-old private whose parents, Harry and Sarah Annie Butler, lived in Oxford Road, Kidlington.

• Charles Bryden, a 27-year-old private, the son of David Bryden of 84 Howard Street, East Oxford.

Their names are inscribed on the Loos Memorial, in northern France, dedicated to more than 20,000 fallen Commonwealth soldiers with no known grave.

Mr Blakeman, the war memorial co-ordinator for the Oxfordshire Family History Society, said: "The 2/4th Battalion only went out to France on May 24 or 25, so they were only there for a couple of months when this battle happened.

"It was a diversionary attack to tie up the Germans heading to the Somme.

"The Ox and Bucks battalion were used to transfer ammunition and goods between the trenches."

Mr Blakeman, 69, started researching the First World War after becoming interested in the history of his two grandfathers, who both served in the battalion.

He said: "My paternal grandfather Ephraim Blakeman became a lance corporal and my mother's father James Walton was a sergeant. I know they were out in France but there's no way of knowing if they fought at Fromelles."

The new cemetery will be built by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission at Pheasant Wood on the edge of Fromelles.

Are you related to Frederick William Bateman, Sidney Butler or Charles Bryden? Call Thom Airs on 01865 425422 or email him at tairs@nqo.com

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