22-year-old Private Alfred Powers died at Mudros, a small port and deep-water harbour on the Mediterranean island of Lemnos, Greece, which was being used by the British as a marshalling point for operations in Gallipoli. He was serving with the 7th Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment and was a nursery gardener before enlisting. We don’t know when he joined the Army, but he first entered a Theatre of War on 11th September 1915, less than three months before he died.
Alfred was born in Aylestone, Leicester in 1893 but within two years of his birth, his family had moved to Shirley, Solihull, which was the birthplace of his father, Alfred Job Powers, who was a carpenter and joiner. Alfred senior and his wife, Elizabeth (née Green) had married at Market Harborough in 1886 and went on to have nine children, of whom two had died by 1911 when the family was living at Longmore Lane (later Longmore Road), Shirley.
Alfred Powers is buried at Hill 10 Cemetery, Turkey and is commemorated locally on the Shirley war memorial.
If you have any more information about the Powers family of Shirley, please let us know.
Tracey
Heritage & Local Studies Librarian
tel.: 0121 704 6934
email: heritage@solihull.gov.uk
Solihull Life 
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