REGINALD ARTHUR SELLERS 

Reginald Arthur SELLERS
Rank: Private
Service Number:230825.
Regiment: 10th (Shropshire and Cheshire Yeomanry) Bn. King's Shropshire Light Infantry
Formerly: 1272, Cheshire Yeomanry
Killed In Action Saturday 21st September 1918
Age 24
FromMacclesfield.
County Memorial Macclesfield
Commemorated\Buried Unicorn Cemetery, Vendhuile
Grave\Panel Ref: II. C. 15.
CountryFrance

Reginald Arthur's Story.

EARLY LIFE

Reginald Sellers was born in Macclesfield in October 1894, the son of Elizabeth (nee Bullock) and Thomas Sellers, manager of a silk winding and warping department, of 19 Clowes Street, Macclesfield.

Reginald's mother died in 1896, and in 1900 his father married Mary Ellen Clulow.

In 1901, six-year-old Reginald was living at 19 Clowes Street with his parents and siblings Walter (14), Emily (11) and Gertrude (9). His younger brother Tom, aged four, was living at 35 Armitt Street with William Timmis and his family as their adopted son, an arrangement which may have started in June 1896, when Tom's mother Elizabeth died very soon after he was born.

Reginald was educated at Christ Church School; in 1907, after leaving school, he was employed as an office boy and enrolled at Macclesfield Technical School to further his education. In 1909 he attended a course in common law at the Technical School.

By 1911, Tom was back at 19 Clowes St with the rest of the family and Reginald, then aged sixteen, was employed as a junior clerk in a solicitor's office.

 

WW1 SERVICE

The death of Private Sellers was reported in the Macclesfield Times on 18 October 1918: 

Reginald Arthur Sellers, son of Mr and Mrs T Sellers, 19 Clowes St, Macclesfield, was killed in France on September 21st while helping a wounded comrade. Twenty-four years of age, he attended Crompton Road and Christ Church Schools, and was connected with Macclesfield Sunday School and the Parish Church. He enlisted in the 2nd Batt Cheshire Yeomanry in October 1914 and after training volunteered with others to make up the 1st Battalion who were about to go on foreign service. They were sent out to Egypt in March 1916, and whilst in Palestine he was wounded, being admitted into hospital in March this year. He was a signaller in the Yeomanry, and whilst in Egypt was attached to the King's Shropshire Light Infantry. In civil life Signaller Sellers was in a solicitor's office. Two brothers are serving in France, one as chaplain to the KSLI and the youngest in the Welsh regiment.

 

COMMEMORATION

Private Reginald Sellers is buried at the Unicorn Cemetery, Vendhuile, Aisne, France, in grave ref. II. C. 15. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission holds casualty details for Private Reginald Sellers, and he is listed on the Imperial War Museum’s Lives of the First World War website.

In Macclesfield, Private Reginald Sellers is commemorated on the Park Green, Town Hall, St Michael's Church, Christ Church School and Macclesfield Sunday School war memorials.

 

NOTES

Brother of Rev Walter Sellers, who gave up his position as deputy chaplain at Strangeways Prison in Manchester to serve in France as chaplain to the KSLI from 1917 until 1919; and Tom Sellers, who served in the Welsh regiment.

 

SOURCES

GRO (England & Wales) Index: Births, Marriages, Deaths
Census (England & Wales): 1901, 1911
National School Admission Registers and Log-books (FindMyPast)
Museum of Army Chaplaincy records for W Sellers
Commonwealth War Graves Commission website
Lives of the First World War website
Macclesfield Times: 18 October 1918, 23 September 1921 (photo supplement)


Research by Rosie Rowley, Congleton.