sharing Solihull's local history
Parish councils came into existence as a result of the Local Government Act 1894, which was also known as the Parish Councils Act. Civil Parishes are the smallest areas of local government administration. The 1894 act allowed for the election of parish councils in rural areas and required the entire area of a parish to be within the same administrative county.
Continue reading “Parish Councils”
The first recorded mention of Hampton Manor estate appeared in the Domesday Book of 1086, and today the current manor house still stands in the heart of the village of Hampton-in-Arden just along from the Parish church where a church has stood since Saxon times.
Continue reading “Hampton Manor”
Wednesday 12th May 1937 saw the coronation at Westminster Abbey in London of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. The date had been chosen for the coronation of King Edward VIII who had become king on the death of his father George V in January 1936. Although Edward VIII’s abdication in December resulted in a new king and queen on the throne, the coronation date of 12th May was retained.
In Solihull, the event was marked by a three-day carnival, which ran into the Whitsuntide weekend, and many of the villages now in the borough held their own celebrations.
Leading Seaman Edgar William King, of HMS St Vincent, died of influenza and pneumonia in the Royal Navy Hospital, South Queensferry, on 20th December 1918. Born on 18th May 1888 in Hampton-in-Arden, he was the son of the village postmaster, Walter King, and his wife, Elizabeth Ann (née Williams).
Having spent almost all of the war as a Prisoner of War, Private Cornelius Cull, 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, died of pneumonia in Germany on 24th November 1918.
Two local men died on 9th November 1918 – Private Reginald Blamire, 1st Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and Private Cecil Raymond Nickson, 20th Hussars.
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.
Second Lieutenant Thomas Pargetter Jones was killed in action on 31st October 1918 whilst serving in France with the Royal Air Force. He was the third of three brothers to be killed in the war – younger brothers Charles Victor (1892-1916) and Collins Jeffreys (1893-1916) enlisted in the 1st Birmingham Pals together on 1st January 1915 and died within hours of each other on 22nd/23rd July 1916.
Three men with a local connection lost their lives on 12th October 1918 whilst on active service – Private George Thomas Oakes, Horse Transport and Supply, Army Service Corps; Private Percy Poole, 281st Company, Machine Gun Corps; and Corporal Frederick George Wicketts, 4th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment.
30-year-old Armourer-Corporal Edwin Baskerville Parry was killed in action on 1st October 1918 whilst serving with the 16th Battalion, Canadian Infantry. He was born in Birmingham on 11th December 1887 and was the eldest of the four children of parents Edwin (a builder) and Annie (née Tanner) who had married in Edgbaston in April 1887. It was Edwin’s second marriage, as his first wife, Caroline, had died in 1884, aged 31, leaving him with a young son, Arthur Edwin Parry (1875-1955).
Continue reading “1st October 1918”
Solihull Life 