21st July 1918

Lieutenant Philip Edward Lindner, aged 30, was killed on 21st July 1918 whilst flying with 66th Wing, Royal Air Force in Albania. Born in Solihull on 4th April 1889, he was the youngest of the seven children of parents, Frederick William Lindner (an export merchant) and his wife Lucy Jane (née Collins) who had married in Coventry in 1876.

Frederick’s father, Maximilian, was born in Germany and came to Britain c. 1870, where he was German Vice-consul to Birmingham until about 1895. By 1881, Frederick and Lucy were living in The Hermitage, Lode Lane, Solihull, where they lived until the house was badly damaged by fire in 1905. The family then moved to Milverton and Leamington Spa whilst the Hermitage was being restored. When works were completed in 1915, Frederick Lindner loaned the house to the Red Cross for use as a hospital.

Of the couple’s five sons, two served in the Navy – Murray (1881-1971) served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) whilst Leonard Hubert (1883-1916) was a Lieutenant-Commander and was killed during the Battle of Jutland.

Philip attended Arden House School, Henley-in-Arden, before going onto Repton School. By 1911, aged 21, he was living at the family home in Milverton, and was working for the family export business, as was one of his brothers, Cyril Albert Lindner (1880-1961).

In January 1915, Philip married Stephanie Gertrude Baldwin at St Nicholas’s Church, Warwick. A newspaper report at the time indicated that the bridegroom was training with the Public Schools Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment.  He was also named in the Royal Leamington Spa Courier and Warwickshire Standard, 15th January 1915, as one of the members of the Leamington and County Golf Club away at the Front or engaged in military or other service connected with the war.

By April 1915, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant on probation with the 3rd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment and was listed as being a Cadet or ex-Cadet of the Officers’ Training Corps (OTC).  The Leamington Spa Courier and Warwickshire Standard of 22nd June 1917, reported that Second Lieutenant P. E. Lindner was acting as temporary probation observance officer in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). The RNAS merged with the Royal Flying Corps on 1st April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force (RAF).

Philip Lindner is commemorated at Salonika (Lembet Road) Military Cemetery at Greece, as well as on Solihull war memorial. His widow, Stephanie, married Wilfred Bigwood at Birmingham Cathedral in 1920.

If you have any further information, please let us know.

Tracey
Heritage & Local Studies Librarian

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