Four local men lost their lives on 14th April 1918 whilst on active service. Private George Bellamy, Labour Corps; Gunner Francis Thomas East, 83rd Battery, 11th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, Lance Corporal Walter Mucklow, 4th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment and Private John Tonks, 2nd/7th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
13th April 1918
Two local men lost their lives on 13th April 1918 serving with the 14th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment – 31-year-old Private Leonard Russell and 22-year-old Sergeant Robert Alban Wright.
12th April 1918
Two local men died on active service on 12th April 1918 – 20-year-old Private James Prentice, 1st Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment and 19-year-old Lance Bombardier Harvey Walter Watts, 378th Battery, 169th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery.
10th April 1918
Two local men died on 10th April 1918. Second Lieutenant Percival Horace Batchelor, Royal Warwickshire Regiment attd. 2nd/6th Bn. North Staffordshire Regiment and Private Thomas Teerheege, 3rd Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment.
9th April 1918
Two local men lost their lives on active service on 9th April 1918. Captain Edward Grafton Herbert MC, Royal Warwickshire Regiment but attached to the Machine Gun Corps, and Pioneer Eric Stones, 3rd Special Company, Royal Engineers. Coincidentally, both men had worked for the same Birmingham brassfoundry.
8th April 1918
Private Maurice Edwards died on 8th April 1918 serving with the 28th Battalion, Australian Infantry, Australian Imperial Force. Born in 1896, he was the younger of the two sons of parents, John (a coachman) and Alice (née Johnson) who had married in the Dudley area in 1892.
6th April 1918
20-year-old Sapper Eustace Bertram Wagstaff (listed as Wagstaffe in some records) was killed in action on 6th April 1918 serving with the 69th Field Company, Royal Engineers. He was the second of the four children of parents William Charles (a coachman) and Harriet (née Freeman) who had married in London in 1891.
4th April 1918
Rifleman Harry Fox, 7th Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps, died of wounds on 4th April 1918. Harry was the fifth of the eight known children of parents George Blanford Fox (coachman and, later, farm labourer) and Sarah Ann (née Hughes) who married in George’s home parish of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in 1874. There was a ninth child, who had died by 1911, as had two of the other children – Fanny (born and died in 1874) and John (born and died 1877). The family moved to Solihull Lodge between 1875-1877 and lived there until at least 1911.
1st April 1918
Private Arthur Noel Cox, 20th Hussars was killed in action on 1st April 1918. He was the 11th of 12 children of whom three had died by 1911. One of Arthur’s brothers – Edward John Cox, a regular soldier – had died in 1915 of illness, after being involved in the ‘Wayfarer incident’.
Solihull Life 