Selected Biography

Springett, Mary Rosalind – Born: Lavenham, Suffolk on 10.5.1913.[1]  Parents: George Springett (Hotel Keeper) and Minnie [née Reynolds].  Family Connections: Sister to Arthur Charles Springett Reynolds of Long Melford [b1899].  Home: 6 Chestnut Terrace, Hall Street, Long Melford (1921) to [1993].  Occupation: Post Office Clerk (1939), Shop Assistant [1960].[2]  Service Record: Mary was a member of the Women Home Guard Auxiliaries attached to Signal Section of 10^th Battalion, Suffolk Home Guard.  Her name and image are recorded in the official tribute to the organization entitled The Lion Roared his Defiance, photographed in and around Long Melford in 1944.[3]  After the war she joined the Long Melford Good Companions Players, in 1949 appearing in Quality Street.[4]  Died: Long Melford, Suffolk on 23.9.1993.  In her will she left a bequest of £200 to Holy Trinity Church in Long Melford.[5]

Related Biography

Reynolds, Arthur Charles Springett – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk in 1899.  Parents: Minnie Reynolds (Dressmaker) [married George Springett (Hotel Keeper) in 1903].  Family Connections: Sister to Mary Rosalind Springett [b1913] and nephew of George William Reynolds [b1884].  Home: Hall Street, Long Melford (1901 to 1911).  Service Record: Arthur was conscripted as Pte.56719 with 17^th [Service] Battalion [1^st South East Lancashire], Lancashire Fusiliers, being posted to France as part of 104^th Brigade, 35^th Division.  His Service Record does not appear to have survived; we cannot be certain therefore exactly when he was posted to the Western Front.  Given his age it should not have been any earlier than March 1918.  The Battalion’s War Diary records that a draft of 145 Other Ranks joined it in the trenches on 13.4.1918, a matter of days before moving into the Corps Reserve at Toutencourt.  Apart from four days in the middle of the month, most of May was spent ten miles behind the front-line, training and practicing for the next assault.  On 29.5.1918 his unit re-occupied trenches at Aveluy Wood, three miles north of Albert, in preparation for an attack two days later.  Although this was initially successful in inflicting serious casualties on the enemy and in the capture of many prisoners from the 24^th Saxony Division, it was ultimately beaten back at the cost of 88 of its own men, killed, wounded, or missing.[6]  Died: Arthur died on 2.6.1918 at the Casualty Clearing Station at Gézaincourt of wounds received the previous morning, on the western edge of the Wood.  Private Reynolds is buried in Bagneux British Cemetery [grave ref: II.C.25], Gézaincourt, Somme, France, and commemorated on the Long Melford War Memorial.[7]

Notes – [1] 1939 Register.  [2] Passenger List for RMS Saxonia on 22.7.1960.  [3] Published by Marten & Son, Ltd., of Market Hill, Sudbury, Suffolk in 1946.  My thanks to Mrs Nita Palmer-Randle for identifying this image.  [4] Suffolk Free Press 17.5.1949.  [5] Date of death from the National Probate Calendar, see also theatrical notice in SFP 28.10.1993.  [6] For details of Arthur’s time with his battalion during the first half of 1918 see War Diary [WO 95/2484/1].  See also his Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329], and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372].  [7] Commonwealth War Graves Commission record and British Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929 file [ref: 702921], Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329] and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372].