Sergeant Edward Clarke MM was killed in action on 26th August 1918 whilst serving with the 7th Battalion Border Regiment. He died just ten days after returning from two weeks’ home leave, during which time he married Mabel Annie Florence, a widow, at St Alphege Church, Solihull.
24th August 1918
Two men with a local connection lost their lives on active service on 24th August 1918. Sergeant William Francis Mundy, whose parental home was in Olton died whilst serving with the 73rd Battery, 5th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. 29-year-old Frederick Pillinger from Elmdon died whilst serving with the 16th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
23rd August 1918
Two men from Shirley, Solihull lost their lives on active service on 23rd August 1918 – Private William Frank Ginder, 1st Battalion London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) and Gunner Frederick Thorne, D Battery, 15th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery.
19th August 1918
Lance Corporal Joseph Austin was killed in action on 19th August 1918 whilst serving with the 10th Battalion, The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), having previously been in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
16th August 1918
Captain (Temporary Major) George Christopher Samuel, 9th Battery, 82nd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, died in France on 16th August 1918 as a result of wounds received in action on 10th August. Born in 1881 in Penge, Surrey, he was the eldest son and the second of the five children of parents George (a Baptist minister) and Mary (née Onions) who had married in 1878. Their eldest daughter, Elizabeth Webb Samuel (1879-1967) was born in Penge.
11th August 1918
19-year-old Lieutenant Harry Fawdry, Royal Air Force, was killed in action on 11th August 1918 when his aeroplane (DH9 serial number C1207) was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Zeebrugge. He was born in Sutton Coldfield in 1899, and was the eldest of the two sons of parents, Harry and Winifred Annie (née Hammersley). The couple had married at Bordesley, Birmingham in 1897 and were living at The Parade, Sutton Coldfield at the time of their eldest son’s baptism in October 1899.
Self-build housing in Solihull
They Made It Happen! exhibition in the Heritage Gallery on the first floor of The Core Library, Solihull from July-September 2018 celebrated the self-build housing associations which were set up by people so desperate for a home of their own to rent that they built their own, and then rented it from the housing association. At the time, they had no expectation of being able to buy the houses although, when regulations were relaxed a few years later, most were subsequently able to buy.
Continue reading “Self-build housing in Solihull”26th July 1918
Lance-Corporal George Townsend was killed in action on 26th July 1918, whilst serving with the 12th Battalion The King’s (Liverpool Regiment). He was the first of two brothers to be killed in the war.
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.
20th July 1918
Two men with a local connection lost their lives on active service on 20th July 1918. Captain Robert Jacobs, commanding No. 8 Sanitary Section, Royal Army Medical Corps, died of wounds, aged 39, after an enemy bomb fell on his billet. Second Lieutenant Norman Edward Smith, 1st/2nd Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, attached to 2nd/4th Battalion Hampshire Regiment, was killed in action, aged 28.
Solihull Life 