#7612 Sergeant Reginald James Minahan
1ST GLOUCESTERSHIRE REGIMENT
BORN IN GLOUCESTER IN 1887, Reginald Minahan was raised by his grandparents in Clarence Terrace and by an uncle, Jimmy, who was secretary of East Midlands Rugby, dapper in his bowler hat and destined to be a member of the RFU committee after the war. Reginald joined the Gloucestershire Regiment in 1904 and made the most of the affinity for rugby that he shared with his uncle during his time in the army. A flanker who was present in the first fifteen when the regiment won the Army Rugby Cup in 1910, he had even played in Toulouse and in France several times, including at the head of a Midlands Wanderers team. Even at the front he had continued playing, as the Gloucesters managed to take on scratch sides from other battalions, teams from the supply lines and even artillery brigades.
Sergeant Reginald Minahan. (Authors’ collection)
Having left the army, Reginald was working for Michelin in London when war was declared. His old battalion was ordered to mobilise on the afternoon of 4th August. As a reservist, he wasted no time at all in jumping on a train bound for the West Country and was the first to arrive at the depot in Bristol, reporting for duty before midnight. Reginald had been badly wounded on 9th May during the fighting at Aubers Ridge. After failed attempts the battalion was eventually ordered to retire to its original trenches, but he was fit again in time for when the Gloucesters were called to the Somme.
The Fourth Army was trying busily to deal with the consequences of failure up and down the line on 23rd July. Although it was not instructed to attack on the 23rd, Reginald’s division was now ordered to make an assault on Munster Alley, which was proving to be a particularly problematic trench, one that ran into the difficult OG Lines, where the Australians were still in action and enduring savage fighting at close quarters.
The 1st Gloucesters had reached Contalmaison to the rear of this sector on 14th July. The attack carried out on the 23rd, like most of those up and down the line, had failed. At 7:30pm that night orders were received for Reginald Minahan and his battalion to assist in replacing the tired men who had made the assault and were now ensconced in the old German line. They set off at 5:30am and by 10am on the 24th they were in the trenches on the right of the brigade front, being shelled heavily. ‘Life here was as exciting as the most ardent fire-eater could desire,’ one officer commented.
In the meantime a conference was being held to plan another assault that night, in which the Gloucesters would support a battalion of South Wales Borderers advancing on a portion of Munster Alley at 2am on the 25th, while other troops continued to try to take the OG Lines beyond Pozières to their left. In spite of a heavy bombardment, a strategically placed machine gun halted the Welsh attack. Throughout the day yet more intense shelling by the enemy came down on the whole front. Two German counter-attacks came at the Australians, who were engaged in much heavier scrapping, and on one of them the Gloucesters were able to assist them by raking their attackers with a Lewis gun.
The Gloucesters were withdrawn that evening, having suffered nearly fifty casualties without even attacking. With two others, Reginald Minahan was killed as he prepared to depart the line. Thirty years old, he was about to receive a commission. He was laid to rest at Contalmaison Chateau Cemetery, plot II.D.3.