Sergeant 270013, Northumberland Hussars Yeomanry
Died 23rd March 1918, aged 32
Remembered at Chauny Communal Cemetery, British Extension
but not in Blakeney
Reginald was born in 1885, the son of John and Caroline Daniel. His parents were married in Cambridge and had most of their children in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire before moving to South Shields. This is where they were living in 1911 when Reginald, aged 26, was an assistant librarian. Reginald’s three brothers also fought for their country; Charles and Sydney in the Great War and Hubert in the Boer War. Hubert subsequently appears to have gone to Canada where he lost his life in 1909 on a training exercise with the Canadian artillery.
No Service Records have been found for Reginald, only his listing on the “Soldiers Died in the Great War”, his CWGC burial details and his Medal Cards. However these are sufficient to follow his service in the 1st/1st Northumberland Hussars. This was a mounted unit that had volunteered to serve overseas and as such holds the distinction of being the first Territorial Force in action. They sailed for Zeebrugge, Belgium on 5th October 1914 where they acted as Divisional Cavalry for the 7th Division taking part in the First Battle of Ypres, for which Reginald was awarded the 1914 Star. Thereafter the Regiment was split up not coming together again until May 1916. The Regiment then moved between different Corps and was attached to 111 Corps in November 1917. As such it was in the Fifth Army, under Gough, facing the barrage of the German Spring Offensive when, on the third and last day of the Battle of St. Quentin, Reginald lost his life.
His brief Service Records also note that his next of kin, his parents, were resident in Blakeney when he enlisted. This is where his father had been born and retired back too but, for whatever reason, chose not to have his son’s name placed on the Blakeney War Memorial. Reginald is buried in Chauny Communal Cemetery in the extension that was made for British casualties after the Armistice. This extension was for the burial of remains brought in from the battlefields of the Aisne and from several smaller cemeteries in the surrounding countryside.
Hitherto, Reginald Maurice Daniel has been mistakenly identified, by both the Norfolk Roll of Honour and M. Ferroussat in The Glaven Historian (No. 3, 2000), as the “H. Daniel” added to the War Memorial on New Road. However, recent research shows that the true identity of H. Daniel is in fact Harry Daniel. Although baptised as Giles Harry Daniel, he was always known by his middle name and is actually Reginald’s first cousin.