BORN HULL 1888. HULL PAL. SON OF MERCHANT CAPT. ROBERT R & ALICE NEILL, HULL. WIFE ALICE NEILL, 11 STANMORE ROAD, WEST GREEN, LONDON.DOW 4.6.16.
Hull Pal Memorials write: Born in April 1888, Reginald was the youngest of five children to Robert and Alice Neill of 37 Park Street, Hull. His father was a Master Mariner in the Merchant Navy and hailed from Ireland, his mother a native of Liverpool. Reginald married Alice McGhie in the summer of 1914 and the couple moved to 11 Stanmore Road, Tottenham though it was not long before war tore them apart for when King and Country called he headed back north to his hometown to enlist in the 10th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, The Commercials, 1st Hull Pals.
Training in barracks at Hornsea, Beverley and Ripon throughout 1915 the Pals left Devonport for Alexandria, Egypt three weeks before Christmas and served there until they left Port Said for Marseilles aboard HMT Tunisian at 6pm on 29th February 1916. They arrived on March 7th and caught the train north to Abbeville and the trenches of the Western Front.
Reginald was wounded during the 4th June bombardment and withdrawn to 2nd Stationary Hospital where he died on the 21st after three weeks of agony we can never imagine. He is buried in Abbeville Communal Cemetery; he was 28 years old.
While Reginald writhed in agony his comrades set to work repairing trenches badly damaged by their twin nightmares- shellfire and rain. On 16th June they received the first in what would become regular reinforcements to build the battalion back up to strength. A fact which tells a story in itself.
