Reginald Blencowe Bayliss was born on 9 June 1894 in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, one of the four children of Archibald Bayliss (1854-1942) and Mary James Bayliss née Shrimpton (1860-1930). His birth was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1894 in the Wycombe registration district, Buckinghamshire.
In the 1901 census he is shown as living at The Manse, Church Road, Lyminge, Folkestone, Kent, with his parents, two siblings: May Bayliss (1887-1977) and Norman Bayliss (1896-1961), together with a female general domestic servant. His father was described as a Wesleyan Minister.
The 1911 census returns show both him and his brother Norman Bayliss as boarding pupils at Kingswood School, Lansdowne Road, Bath, Somerset, whilst his parents and sister, May Bayliss, were listed in a ten roomed property at 59 Bannister Street, Withernsea, East Yorkshire.
He entered the Hull branch of the London Joint Stock Bank. On 10 June 1915 he joined the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps. He was gazetted as a Second Lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment on 11 December 1915. He was first appointed to the 27th Battalion and then later to the 2nd Battalion. He entered France on 15 July 1916 and was killed in action, aged 22 years, on 18 November 1916 at Serre, France. Our Picture Source gives details of the action of his battalion when he died. As he has no known grave he is commemorated on Pier and Face 13 A and 14 C, of the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, Rue de l'Ancre, 80300 Thiepval, France.
Probate records show that his address had been 12 St Giles Croft, Beverley, Yorkshire and that when administration of his estate was granted to his father on 26 November 1917 his effects totalled £191-17s-5d. By the 18 March 1918 his father had been sent his army effects totalling £42-0s-0d and he was also sent his £5-0s-0d war gratuity on 11 March 1920.
He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal (1914-1918) and the Victory Medal and these were sent to his father on 15 March 1922 at 'Ingle Nook', Bryn Tirion Park, Conway, North Wales.
He is shown as Bayliss, Reginald B. on the London Joint City and Midland Bank war memorial, 8 Canada Square, London, E13. He is also commemorated on a plaque in the Cottingham Methodist Church, Hallgate, Cottingham, HU16 4BD, on Panel 7 on a wall in Beverley Minster, 38 Highgate, Beverley HU17 0DN, in the Inns of Courts Officers Training Corps' Book of Remembrance at Lincoln's Inn Chapel, Old Buildings, Holborn, London, WC2A 3TL, on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website and on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
