Family :

Education & Career :

School House, Rugby School 1906 to 1910. See also: Rugby School Digital Archive.
Balliol College Oxford 1910

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

The Battle of the Somme 1st July - 18th November 1916 is inevitably characterised by the appalling casualties (60,000) on the first day, July 1st 1916. Having failed to break through the German lines in force, and also failed to maximise opportunities where success was achieved, the battle became a series of attritional assaults on well defended defence in depth. The battle continued officially until 18th November 1916 costing almost 500,000 British casualties. German casualties were about the same, and French about 200,000. The Somme could not be counted a success in terms of ground gained or the cost, but it had a strategic impact as it marked the start of the decline of the German Army. Never again would it be as effective whilst the British Army, learning from its experience eventually grew stronger to become a war winning army. The German High Command recognised that it could never again fight another Somme, a view that advanced the decision to invoke unrestricted submarine warfare in an attempt to starve Britain of food and material, and in doing so accelerated the United States declaration of war thus guaranteeing the eventual outcome. 287 Brethren were killed on the Somme in 1916.

Detail :

Coventry and the Great War by David McGrory "One death that hit the whole city was that of Lieutenant William Reginald Fitzthomas Wyley of the Royal Field Artillery, the only son of hugely respected former mayor Colonel William Wyley of the Charterhouse. Lieutenant Wyley was killed in action by a shell on the morning of 19 September 1916, and was buried at Avebury, near Albert. He arrived in France in March, 1915, was twenty-four years old and many in Coventry hoped that he would become as important to the city as his father. Lord Wynford wrote to Colonel Wyley saying :

"From my constant companionship with him, as my adjutant for the last four months, I had learnt to like him immensely; and his work, especially lately, had been really excellent."

Further commentary reads, "I wish to say how much we are grieved byt he news we have received to-day of the death of the son of our most respected friend, Colonel Wyley. We are very sorry indeed. I have heard him say, when pleading for recruits, that he had given his all, and now he has lost his all. The news will affect every citizen of Coventry. We look upon Colonel Wyley as one of the most respected citizents of Coventry - one whom we can not only respect, but love, because he is always fair and just.

A tree and plaque to Lieutenant Wyley can still be seen in the War Memorial Park."

Masonic :

Joined St. Michaels Lodge No 1630, Coventry from Apollo No. 377 on 29th October 1914. Not to be confused with his father, Col. William Fitzthomas Wyley of the same name who was Provincial Grand Master of Warwickshire. The contribution record of Apollo Lodge shows the annotation "Killed in Action Aug 1916"

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley