Reginald Charles Norton

Born: 1895

Died: 4th September 1916

Rank and Regiment: Private G/8933 in the 1st Battalion of The Queens (Royal West Surrey) Regiment.

Resting Place: body unrecovered

Memorial: St. Peter’s, Reymerston, United Kingdom and; Thiepval Memorial, France

Reginald Norton was Percy’s brother, older by 2 years. He was baptised in Reymerston on 18 August 1895. When Reginald left school he went to work as a Yard boy on a local farm to help with the family finances. 

Reginald died of wounds aged 21 on 4 September 1916 during the battle of Guillemont. He was a Private in the 1st Battalion The Queens (Royal West Surrey) Regiment G/8933 fighting at Delville Wood. He has no known grave, but is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial Pier and Face 5 D and 6 D which lies between Arras and Amiens in northern France, close to the site of the Somme.

Reginald’s mother Harriet was in receipt of his effects, which amounted to £3 13s 1d paid on 17 February 1917, followed by a further £3 war gratuity paid on 17 July 1919.

Reginald’s parents Robert and Harriet are listed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as living at “72, Mansen Green, Thuxton” – but Manson Green is in fact in Hardingham. At all events, they then moved to Blackwater where they were at the time of Percy’s death less than a year later. Robert died aged 67 in 1922 and Harriet died aged 69 in 1928.

Reginald’s brother Ernest married a local girl Hilda Ransome in 1908. His brother, Albert, married in 1923 whilst sister Edith in 1926. All the siblings had children but appear to have moved away from Reymerston during the 1920s.

Thiepval Memorial, France