The_Poppy_March_2012.pdf - The Western Front Association

Proposed Branch Visit to Reading Old Cemetery
Saturday 23rd June 2012 at 2.30 pm
A proposed guided branch trip to the fascinating
Reading Old Cemetery is being arranged for Saturday
23rd June 2012, starting at 2.30 pm.
Reading Cemetery was set up by a private Act of
Parliament in 1842 to establish the Reading Cemetery
Company and is now Grade 2 listed. It contains 18,327
graves, covering an area of 11.5 acres, and includes
two listed memorials, a war graves plot, memorials to
three Old Contemptibles and a memorial to George
Blackall Simonds, the sculptor of the Maiwand Lion
in Reading’s Forbury Gardens. The war graves plot is
situated at the back of the cemetery and includes a
screen wall memorial to commemorate those buried in
Plot 72 together with those buried in other parts of the
cemetery, whose graves are not marked by headstones.
There are 205 Commonwealth burials from the First
World War and 41 from the Second World War plus one
from Serbia.
The cemetery is situated at the junction of London
Road (A4) and Wokingham Road (A423) in East Reading
and parking is permitted inside the cemetery through
the main entrance.
Reading Old Cemetery, Cemetery Junction
Of special interest to Branch
Members might be the headstone
of Trooper Joseph William Odell of
the Berkshire Yeomanry. As readers
of The Poppy no. 6 may recall, a new
headstone was paid for in 2004 by
the Regimental Association of the
Berkshire Yeomanry. The Branch raised
the money to pay for cemetery fees
and Branch Member Alan Dickens,
a stonemason, very kindly carved
and erected the headstone free of
charge. n
The Maiwand Lion, Forbury Gardens, Reading
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