Corporal Thomas Samuel Carlisle Joiner died of influenza/pneumonia on 24th September 1918 at 79th General Hospital, Taranto, Italy whilst serving with the 8th Battalion Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry. According to the Solihull Parish Magazine October 1918, He was en route to England from Salonika after three years on active service.
20th September 1918
35-year-old Private Edwin Guy Silk was killed in action on 20th September 1918 whilst serving with the 14th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Edwin was the youngest of the five known children of parents Edwin (a coal merchant) and Eleanor Maria (née Prosser) who had married in Coleshill in 1875. A sixth child had died in infancy.
18th September 1918
Two men with a local connection lost their lives on 18th September 1918 whilst on active service – Private William Cleaver, 10th Battalion Notts and Derby (Sherwood Foresters) Regiment and Private William John Reynolds, B Company, 12th Battalion,, Hampshire Regiment.
16th September 2018
Private Frank Barker, 10th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment died in Germany as a prisoner of war on 16th September 1918. The cause of death was given as “P.U.O.” (Pyrexia of unknown origin), which was usually the term given to trench fever – an unpleasant bacterial infection transmitted by body lice.
13th September 1918
22-year-old Corporal David Jelfs, 26th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment was killed in action in the Balkans on 13th September 1918. Born in Bretforton, Honeybourne, Worcestershire in 1895, he was the third of the eight children (two sons, six daughters) of parents Harry (a stockman on a farm) and Matilda (née Gillett).
12th September 1918
Two men with a local connection lost their lives on 12th September 1918 whilst on active service – Sergeant Allen Noel Birkett Barker, 66th Brigade HQ, Royal Garrison Artillery and Lance Corporal Philip West, 2nd/4th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment.
9th September 1918
18-year-old Percy John Evans died on 9th September 1918 whilst training at Hastings as a cadet with the Squadron Cadet Wing, Royal Air Force.
2nd September 1918
Private James Walter Brampton, 4th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, died on 2nd September 1918, aged 26. He was married with one daughter, Phyllis Maud (1915-1997).
1st September 1918
Two local men lost their lives on 1st September 1918 whilst on active service. Private Hubert John Draper was serving with 4th Battalion, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) whilst Private Frank George England was with the Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) attached to the 1st/20th Battalion, London Regiment.
31st August 1918
Captain Thomas St Pierre Bunbury died, aged 23, in an air battle on 31st August 1918 whilst serving with the 64th Squadron Royal Air Force. He was the elder of the two children of Captain (later Major-General) William Edwin Bunbury (1858-1925) and Eva Mary (née Gale) who had married in Bengal in 1893.
Solihull Life 