24-year-old Corporal Luther Thomas Hammond, who served with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and the Royal Air Force , died at Hill House Farm, Lapworth on 11th March 1919. The cause of death was listed on his service record as cerebral meningitis (non-tubercular). He is buried in a private grave and does not appear to be listed in Commonwealth War Graves records.
He was born in Lapworth on 17th June 1894 and was the elder of the two children of parents, Jacob (a lock keeper and, later, a farm bailiff) and Julia. He had a younger sister, Emily Christina (1895-1963), who was apparently known as Christina.
By 1911, Luther was working as an apprentice carpenter, although at the time he enlisted in the Army on 7th October 1914 he gave his occupation as a gardener. He first saw overseas service in July 1915. He was transferred to the Army Service Corps on 19th April 1918 and then joined the Royal Air Force on 18th May 1918. He was then transferred to the RAF Reserve on 26th February 1919.
On 22nd July 1918 he married Margaret Louise Wall at Lapworth. It’s not believed that they had any children. Margaret remarried in 1925 and is known to have had a son, Stanley Leslie Blundall (1928-2004), with her second husband, Arthur William Blundall (1899-1989). Margaret died in Birmingham in 1973, aged 81.
Corporal Hammond was the last of the war casualties from Lapworth to die. He is commemorated on war memorials at Lapworth and Hockley Heath.
If you have any further information, please let us know.
Tracey
Heritage and Local Studies Librarian
tel.: 0121 704 6977
email: heritage@solihull.gov.uk
Solihull Life 
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