sharing Solihull's local history
Three men with a local connection died on 8th November 1918 – Gunner John Edward Herbert Harrison, 536th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery; Private Stephen Hastings, 2nd/4th Field Bakery, Royal Army Service Corps; and Sergeant Howard William Smith, 2nd Battalion (Knowle and Dorridge detachment), Royal Warwickshire Volunteers.
Three men with a local connection died on 7th November 1918 whilst on active service – Private Edward Allen, Reinforcement Depot, Tank Corps; Private George Terheege, Labour Corps; and Second Lieutenant John Shilvock Wright, 219th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery.
27-year-old Private Thomas Bellamy, 5th Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment) died on 5th November 1918. Born in Lapworth in 1891, he was the youngest of the three sons of parents, George (a general labourer on the Umberslade Hall estate) and Mary Ann (née Jesson) who had married at Smethwick in 1885. His eldest brother, George, had died on 14th April 1918 and is buried at Umberslade Baptist Church.
37-year-old Private Edward Jones, 8th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment, was killed in action on 4th November 1918. Born in 1881 in Aston, he was the third of the six children (three sons, three daughters) of parents Herbert (a clerk) and Ellen (née Gunner) who had married in Birmingham in 1875. One of the children – Herbert Richard Jones (1878-1880) – died before reaching two years of age.
Captain Wilfred Eric Wright, 5th Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment, died in hospital in Scarborough as a result of contracting pneumonia following influenza. He was born in Solihull in 1894 and the family was living in Lode Lane by 1897 before moving to Acocks Green by 1911.
Sergeant William Henry Wedge, 2nd/6th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, was killed in action on 2nd November 1918. Born in Birmingham in 1898, he was the only son of parents, William Henry Wedge (a stamper in a cycle works) and Martha Higgins, who had married at St Martin’s Church, Birmingham on 31st January 1897.
Miss Dora Phillips, volunteer at Berkswell Rectory Auxiliary Hospital, died on 1st November 1918, aged 21. On the same day, Lance Corporal Thomas Charles Thompson, 2nd/8th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment, was killed in action in France.
Solihull Life 