How to find them
The information boards or on the Forbury Garden Railings behind the Trooper Potts VC Memorial in The Forbury, opposite to the Crown Court & the Roseate Hotel
The Unveiling
The memorial to Trooper Potts VC and the Roll of Honour to the 426 men of the Berkshire Yeomanry was unveiled on 4 October 2021 by Mr James Puxley, the Lord-Lieutenant of the Royal County of Berkshire, and Mr Christopher Tarrant OBE. This was 100 years after Trooper Potts’ VC was Gazetted (Listed in the London Gazette). The two information panels are part of that memorial and unveiling. The event was attended by over 700 people.
A bit of background
The memorials to Trooper Potts VC and the Berkshire Yeomanry Roll of Honour were erected by the Trooper Potts VC Memorial Trust after a campaign and fundraising effort that started with the idea by two journalists at BBC Radio Berkshire in 2009. With the assistance of Haslams Estate Agents and Sue Roberts DL a net of £174,000 was raised in three years enabling the memorial to be built.
The sculpture was designed by Tom Murphy, a sculptor from Liverpool, and cast by the Morris Singer Foundry in Lasham. On the ground of the sculpture, the battle field in Gallipoli, there are many things to discover. Design of the Roll of Honour was inspired by the Titanic Memorial in Belfast. The sculpture and the roll of honour are in Bronze.
It was felt that interpretation panels were required to explain the story of the memorials. One panel explains the story of the Berkshire Yeomanry and the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915. The other panel explains the history of the Victoria Cross, the attack on Scimitar Hill on 18 August 1915 Turkey and the rescue by Trooper Potts of his comrade Trooper Andrews when under constant fire and over a period of 48 hours, for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross. The citation is shown. Also recorded on this panel are the 3 other men originally from the Reading area who won the VCs during the Crimean War, WWI and WWII. The panels were designed by Anne Marie Carroll and produced by A G Wells of the Isle of Wight.
Every year since the unveiling of the memorial on Armistice Day members of the Berkshire Yeomanry, the families of Fred Potts and Arthur Andrews and the Trooper Potts VC Trust have attended a Remembrance Service at the memorial.
Other information
Several sites were considered. Within Forbury Gardens was quickly discarded as the archaeology work consequential on building the foundations for the sculpture might have been very time expensive. Reading Station Concourse was considered briefly, whilst it would have given the memorials much visibility the council guided that it would get in the way of people flows and as there was to be so much construction in the area in coming years it was not as good a site as it might appear. The Trust readily accepted the council’s offer of the current site by the Forbury. As the then head of Parks, Dr Carolyn Jenkins, commented at the time “this site is crying out for a good piece of sculpture”. Members of the trust have been delighted by the location, albeit the lime aphid drew drop from above can be a bit problematic making the roll of honour dirty at times.
Further information about the story and the Trooper Potts VC Trust go to Potts VC Memorial Site (pottsvctrust.org)
Members of the trust undertake educational outreach work to local schools about WWI, the story of Gallipoli and this Reading VC. They also offer talks to local groups WIs , U3As etc. Contact Bennettbaker@Msn.com for more information.