Private Joseph Albert Jeffcott, 2nd/7th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers died of wounds on 6th May 1918 at the 1st Southern General Hospital, Stourbridge. This was the infirmary at Stourbridge Union Workhouse, which was commandeered for war service in June 1915. After several name changes, it became Wordsley Hospital in the 1970s.
He was born in Aston in 1897, and was the younger of the two children of parents Joseph Albert Jeffcott (a baker) and Clara (née Milner) who had married in 1894. His sister, Blanche Harriet Sophia, was born in 1895.
By 1911, the family had moved to Kinwalsey Lane, Meriden, although Joseph Albert (senior) was recorded on census night at the bakery in Great Lister Street, Birmingham. In Meriden, his wife and daughter were listed as a baker’s assistant and servant respectively. 13-year-old Joseph (junior) was listed as assisting on a farm.
Joseph’s service record appears not to have survived, so we don’t know when he joined the Army, although we know he enlisted in Coventry. Having been invalided back to England, he is buried in Meriden churchyard and is commemorated on Meriden war memorial.
His parents appear to have remained in the village until their deaths. Joseph (senior) died in 1934, after which his widow remarried, marrying James Ellis in Meriden in 1935. She died in 1960, aged 84.
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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