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Private Edward Reginald LETTS (known as Reginald)

1st Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment 16619

Reginald was born on 24 November 1893 in Spratton, the son of Harry Letts, a farm waggoner and his wife Eliza.  His mother, Eliza, came from a long-established family in the village. They lived in one of a group of small cottages on the corner of Manor Road and Middle Turn (now Brixworth Road). Reginald was brought up with his four sisters and they all attended the village primary school. When Reginald left school in 1907 he became a farm labourer, but volunteered for the army when war was declared in August 1914. His father died at about the same time and his mother left Spratton and moved into Northampton.

Reginald served in the 1st Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment and was sent overseas on 29 April 1915 just as fighting on the Western Front near Ypres was becoming more intense. The enemy had greatly strengthened their defences with thick barbed wire, concrete blockhouses and machine gun emplacements, and poison gas was being used for the first time.  The British Expeditionary Force could not break through and the Northamptonshire Regiment suffered terrible losses at the Battle of Auber’s Ridge on 9 May 1915.  Reginald, aged 21 years, was killed at Auber’s Ridge. He had been fighting for only one week. He has no known grave but his name is on Le Touret Memorial (on the Bethune to Armentieres Road) in France and also on the War Memorial in Spratton churchyard.  He was awarded the 1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

MORE INFORMATION

Where he lived in Spratton

Genealogy Data

The Le Touret Cemetery and Memorial, France
The Le Touret Cemetery and Memorial, France
The Le Touret Cemetery and Memorial, France
The Le Touret Cemetery and Memorial, France

MEN WHO SERVED

ADNITT
ARCHER
ARTHUR
AUSTIN
BALDERSON
BALDWIN
BATTAMS
BILLING
BLAKESLEY
BLUNDELL
BOWERS
BRANSON
BROWN
BUCKBY
BUSWELL
CAPON
CATTELL
CLARKE
COOK
COOKE
COPSON
CRANE
DICKENS
DICKERSON
DUNKLEY
ELDRED
ELSDALE
ERSKINE
FOWLES
FRANKLIN
FRISBY
GAMMAGE
GIST
GOODEN
GOODWIN
GREEN
HAYTER
HIDER
HIGGS
HOBLEY
HODGE(S)
HODSON
HORNE
HUNT
JOHNSON
JUDD
KENCH
KNIGHT
KNIGHTALL
LEATHERLAND
LEESON
LEONARD
LETTS
LIVESEY
MAINS
MANNING
MANNINGHAM-BULLER
MARTIN
MASON
MIDDLETON (WYKES)
NORMAN
PAGE
PASSEY
PATEMAN
PAYNE
PHEASANT
POWELL
REEVE
RHODES-MOORHOUSE
RICHARDSON
SMITH
SNEDKER
SPEECHLEY
STEVENS
TARPLEY
TARRANT
TAYLOR
THORNTON
TIRRELL
TITE
TREDWELL
TURLAND
VINEY
VOKE
WADHAMS
WARD
WARWICKS
WHATTON
WOOD
WYKES
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