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Message:: [QUOTE="PaddyB, post: 2474698, member: 40017"][ATTACH=full]521312[/ATTACH] I thought some of you would be interested in an update on this death plaque. William Benjamin Reynolds proved to be a unique hit on the databases. He was a Private soldier in the 1st Battalion the Rifle Brigade. He was lost, presumed killed in action, at the Battle of Ypres on 15th July 1915. (His body was never found.) He was 38 and had served since the very beginning of the war making him eligible for the 1914 Star (Mons Star) as well as the standard War and Victory medals. He is recorded on the Menin gate memorial at Ypres. He left a widow Mary, and possibly children though they are not mentioned explicitly in the records. It seems likely he had been a regular soldier before the start of the conflict to be so old and get into action so quickly. I went back to the Charity shop that found it to tell them all this. The plaque had been donated in a bag of mostly rubbish, with no details of the donator recorded. The first sorter of the bags had thrown the plaque into the scrap metal crate! Surprisingly it was a teenage assistant who spotted it there and brought it to the manager's attention. I have to admit both I and the manager were not entirely dry-eyed as we discussed the sadness of this man's final memento being discarded so casually.[/QUOTE]