Second Lieutenant Claude Charles Langford, 6th Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers) died on 23rd February 1918 at Tidworth Camp. Born in 1897 in Birmingham, he was the eldest of the four sons of parents, Oliver Charles (a cardboard box manufacturer) and Emma Blanche Lillian (née Thompson) who had married in the Solihull Registration District in 1896.
By 1901, the family was living in Sparkhill but had moved to “Inglewood”, Blossomfield Road, Solihull by 1911. The couple’s second son, Arthur Leonard, was born and died in 1903, but they went on to have two younger boys, Ronald Stanley (1904-1994), Terence Lewin (1910-1986), both of whom were too young serve in the war.
Claude attended Solihull School, leaving in 1913, and going onto the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was gazetted Second Lieutenant with the Dragoon Guards on 21st December 1917, and subsequently went on to Tidworth Camp, Wiltshire. Unfortunately, having caught influenza, he then developed bronchitis/pneumonia, from which he died on 23rd February 1918.
His funeral was held at Lodge Hill Cemetery, Birmingham and his parents’ address at the time was given as “Grasmere”, Birmingham Road. He seems to have been a keen golfer, and is commemorated on the Roll of Honour at both Copt Heath and Robin Hood Golf Clubs.
If you have any further information, please let us know.
Tracey
Heritage & Local Studies Librarian
tel.: 0121 704 6977
email: heritage@solihull.gov.uk
Solihull Life 
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