Biography of Lance Corporal Robert James Reed, Middesex Regiment during World War One 1914-1918. Robert James Reed was a Wimbledon man from Merton in London. He volunteered to serve his country and enlisted as a soldier in the Middlesex Regiment in 1915. He fought on the Western Front, including the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and survived. Largely a biography, this fascinating book also offers an interesting and perhaps sometimes controversial social commentary on the history, politics, generals and soldiers of World War One, as well as an in-depth portrait of the life of Lance Corporal Robert James Reed. His son, D.B. Reed, has spent many years researching, reading and studying the history of his father as a solider during World War One and the contemporary history of that time.