sharing Solihull's local history
Lance Corporal Thomas George Robinson died of wounds on 9th February 1918, serving with the 10th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Known as George, he was born in Copt Heath on 10th May 1895 and baptised at St Alphege Church, Solihull on 4th August 1895.
Two Canadian officers with a local connection lost their lives on 23rd January 1918 whilst on active service. Second Lieutenant Ralph Gordon Hall, and Second Lieutenant Reginald Douglas Hamilton, both aged 19 and serving with the Royal Flying Corps, died in a flying accident at Castle Bromwich when their aeroplanes collided with each other.
30-year-old Richard Lander Sale died of wounds on 15th January 1918, whilst serving as a Lieutenant with the Royal Horse Guards. He was born in Atherstone, Warwickshire in 1887 and was the second of the four sons of parents, Alfred (a solicitor) and Annie Gertrude (née Cheshire) who had married in Witherley, Leicestershire in August 1885.
Two men with a local connection lost their lives on 5th January 1918. 29-year-old Private John Henry Bridges died of wounds at no. 19 Casualty Clearing Station whilst serving with the 3rd/10th Battalion Middlesex Regiment. 26-year-old Gunner Alexander John Prince was killed in action whilst serving with the 1st/2nd (Lancs) Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery.
Continue reading “5th January 1918”34-year-old Lance Corporal George Johnson, 11th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, died of wounds in France on 4th January 1918. He was born in Marton, Warwickshire on 29th September 1883 and was the seventh of the twelve children of parents, William (a farm labourer) and Emma (née Hobday) who had married at Stretton on Dunsmore on Christmas Day, 1870.
Two local men lost their lives on active service on 23rd December 1917 – Sergeant Walter Henry Mitchell, 111th Company, Machine Gun Corps, and Able Seaman John Henry Williams, Royal Naval Reserve, serving on HMS Surprise.
Private Edward Richards died of wounds on 21st December 1917. Aged 42, he had been called up in June 1916 and, although expressing a preference to serve in the Artillery, he was posted to the Royal Irish Fusiliers. He was then transferred to the 87th Company, Labour Corps. 18-year-old John Shirley, lately a Private with the 7th Reserve Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, died of rheumatic fever on the same day.
Lieutenant Lancelot John Barrington Walters lost his life in the sinking of HMS Partridge in the North Sea. On the same day, Private Alfred Humphriss Saunt, Army Service Corps, died of wounds at Queen Mary’s Military Hospital, Whalley, Lancashire.
Private Alfred Williams, 241132, 2nd/6th South Staffordshire Regiment, died of wounds on 10th December 1917. According to Soldiers Died in the Great War, he was born in Knowle, Warwickshire and enlisted in Wolverhampton.
Second Lieutenant Vernon Radcliffe Stewart, aged 23, was accidentally killed on 5th December 1917 whilst serving as a flying instructor at Castle Bromwich. He was born on 19th March 1894 in Holmesfield, Derbyshire but, by 1901, the family had moved to Haslingden, 19 miles north of Manchester. He was educated at Newchurch Grammar School, Haslingden Secondary School, Gigglewick School, and Manchester University before going on to study medicine at St Mary’s Hospital, London.
