Name
Joseph Harry Read
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
14/05/1916
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
58031
Canadian Infantry
20th Bn., Central Ontario Regiment
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
RIDGE WOOD MILITARY CEMETERY
Plot I, Row U, Grave 3.
Belgium
UK & Other Memorials
North Watford Methodist Church Memorial, Watford
Pre War
Son of Joseph Henry and Ellen Georgina (nee SAYELL) READ of Watford.
His parents married 2 April 1888 at St Mary’s, Ivinghoe, Bucks. Joseph died 1926 in Watford aged 60, and was buried 8 December in Vicarage Road Cemetery, Watford; Ellen died 1952 in Watford aged 84, and was buried 2 July, also in Vicarage Road Cemetery.
Harry was born 24 April 1891 in Aylesbury, Bucks, and went to Canada aboard the Teutonic sailing March 1913 from Liverpool to Halifax, Nova Scotia: a bricklayer aged 22.
On the 1901 Census, aged 9 he lived in Watford, with his parents and five siblings. On the 1911 Census, a bricklayer aged 19, he still lived in Watford, with his parents and nine siblings.
Wartime Service
He attested 4 February 1915 at Toronto, Ontario, into the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force: a bricklayer aged 23, unmarried, 5’9″ tall, Methodist; next-of-kin his mother of Watford. He was killed in action in the trenches at St Eloi.
Acknowledgments
Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
