3rd Battalion, North Staffordshire (Prince of Wales’) Regiment
Reginald Frank Bailey was born in Gloucester in 1898. He was the son of Frank Bailey (a railway locomotive fireman) and his wife Elizabeth Annie Amelia (née Winstone). He was one of six children (all surviving at the time of the 1911 Census), his brothers being Harry James (born 1902); Arthur (1906); Leslie (1908) and sisters Gladys (1900) and Doris (1906). The family lived at 23 India Road, Gloucester.
No Army Service or Pension Record appears to have survived for Reginald and therefore details of his army service are scant. His Medal Index Card (MIC) indicates that he first saw service as a Private (325161) in the 2/6th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment. This was a Territorial Force unit, part of 182 Brigade, 61st Division, which first went to France on 21 May 1916 but there is no evidence available to check when Reginald went abroad but the presence of a MIC indicates that he did. As, strictly speaking, he would not have been eligible for service abroad until he was 19, then sometime during 1917 appears likely. Neither is it known when he transferred to the 3rd Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment. This unit was a reserve battalion, which was based at Wallsend, as the Tyne Garrison, from October 1916. It is possible that Reginald was repatriated from the British Expeditionary Force in France due to wounds or sickness and placed with the reserve battalion upon recovery.
Whilst no Pension Record papers have survived, Pension Record Cards were released to the Ancestry website in late 2018. The one held for Private Bailey indicates that he was discharged from the Army on 27 May 1919 as a result of contracting tuberculosis, attributable to active service. He was awarded a 100% disability pension, of forty shillings (£2) per month. This was on a reviewable basis and his final review, for a six month period, was on 8 September 1920.
He married Julia Hannah Roberts at Cranham, Gloucestershire on 3 August 1920 and his occupation at the time of the marriage was described as a driller. She was aged 20 and he three years older. The couple lived at 1 Prospect Villas, Bloomfield Road, Gloucester.
Reginald died on 9 October 1920, aged 22, just two months after his wedding. There is a Death Notice in the Gloucester Journal of 16 October. As it would appear that death was a result of tuberculosis, the fact that he married at Cranham, where a sanatorium for tuberculosis sufferers was located, probably indicates that he was a patient there during his final months. He was buried in Gloucester Old Cemetery, where a standard CWGC headstone marks his grave.
It is not known if his widow re-married.
Researched by Graham Adams 30 November 2018