Reginald George Wells (Rex) was born in East Ilsley in 1887, the youngest son of Mark Wells, the butcher, whose shop stood in the High Street on what is now the car park of the Crown & Horns. The Wells family was a large one, originating in West Ilsley, and besides his six brothers and two sisters, Rex had many relatives in both villages. He followed his father into the butchery trade. In 1911 he married Elizabeth Balls, the daughter of an Essex farmer who had moved to Hampstead Norris. Elizabeth was a teacher at the school in East Ilsley. Their son Rex was baptised in St Mary’s Church, East Ilsley, in 1912, and the family made their home in Newbury.
Rex enlisted in the Royal Berkshire Regiment in Newbury in 1914 and was subsequently transferred to the Hampshire Regiment, gaining steady promotion up to the rank of Sergeant. He was killed in action during the Third Battle of Gaza, and the Newbury Weekly News carried two reports a month later: