4th July 1916

Two local men with a connection to Solihull were killed in action on 4th July 1916 – Second Lieutenant Albert Theodore Vardy, 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment and Private William Ewart Parrott, 6th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment.

27-year-old Albert Theodore Vardy from Lapworth was killed on 4th July 1916, serving as a Second Lieutenant with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was the only son of parents Rev. Albert Richard Vardy and Isabel Mary and was born on 7th August 1888, being baptised at Lapworth on 5th November 1888. He had two older sisters, Winifred Isabella (1874-1931) and Constance Mary (1885-1899).

He had attended West House School, Edgbaston and King Edward’s School, Birmingham, where his father was Headmaster from 1872 until his death from a paralytic stroke, aged 58, in July 1900. Early in his career, Rev. Vardy had been a tutor in the family of writer, Anthony Trollope.

After leaving King Edward’s, Albert Vardy went on to study at Shrewsbury School and then, in 1907, to Pembroke College, Cambridge where he studied classics. On taking his degree, he was appointed classics master at Highgate School, London. On the 1911 census, he appears as a “Graduate in residence” boarding with two Cambridge University undergraduates at Castleton Post Office, Derbyshire.

On the outbreak of war, he joined the Public Schools Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, and obtained a commission in the Special Reserve of Officers in April 1915. He was appointed Second Lieutenant with the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment on 20th December 1915 and was sent abroad in May 1916.

He was killed instantaneously on 4th July 1916, whilst helping a wounded officer from his battalion, who also died. Second Lieutenant Albert Theodore Vardy is buried at Dantzig Military Cemetery and is also commemorated locally at Lapworth and Rowington, as well as on the Roll of Honour at St Paul’s Church, Finchley, north London, and at Christ Church, Warminster (birthplace of his father).

Lest we forget by Peter A. J. Hill notes that Lt Vardy’s name appears on the Roll of Honour in Lapworth Church but not on the war memorial, although he is listed on Rowington’s war memorial as the family had lived at various times in both Lapworth and Rowington parishes. He is also commemorated on the Vardy family grave in the church at Lapworth beneath the lime trees:
“ALSO IN MEMORY OF ALBERT THEODORE VARDY M.A. / 2ND LIEUTENANT ROYAL WARWICKSHIRE REGT / ONLY SON OF THE REV ALBERT RICHARD VARDY / BORN AUGUST 7TH 1888 / KILLED AT THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME / JULY 4TH 1916 / IN CHRIST SHALL ALL LIVE.”

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William Ewart Parrott was born on 4th April 1896 in Selly Park and baptised at St Thomas in the Moors, Balsall Heath, Birmingham on 3rd June 1896. His parents were William John Parrott, an insurance agent from Windsor, and Dorothy Mary (nee Collinson) from Hawkshead, Lancashire.

The couple had married in West Derby in 1887 and were living in Wallasey by 1891 where William John Parrott was a brush maker. The family moved to Sparkhill, Birmingham sometime between 1891-1896 and William became an insurance agent.

William Ewart Parrott was the couple’s youngest child and only son. The couple also had a daughter, Florence Frances Arnold Parrott, who was born in Liverpool in 1888.

By the time of the 1911 census, William Ewart Parrott was living at Cranmore Farm, Shirley, where he was working as a plough boy for farmer, William Thompson.

We don’t know when William Parrott enlisted in the Army but he didn’t serve overseas in 1914 or 1915, suggesting that he was conscripted. He had previously served in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry before being transferred to the Wiltshire Regiment.

William Ewart Parrott has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial. He is not commemorated on Shirley War Memorial but he is commemorated on the war memorial at St John’s Church, Sparkhill, where his parents lived.

William’s parents, William and Dorothy had moved to Malvern, Worcestershire between 1921 and 1931 when William died. Dorothy and her unmarried daughter, were living there together in 1939, with Dorothy dying there in 1943, aged 88. Her daughter, Florence, appears to have died in the Lake District in 1959, aged 70.

If you have any more information about the family, please let us know.

Tracey
Heritage & Local Studies Librarian

email: heritage@solihull.gov.uk
tel.: 0121 704 6977