Two local men lost their lives on 21st July 1916 – 23-year-old Private Dick Neale, 14th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and 19-year-old Second Lieutenant Rowland Murray Wilson-Browne, 12th Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, who was an old boy of Solihull School.
14th July 1916
Private Victor George Houghton, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, was killed in action on 14th July 1916, serving with the 1st/7th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was born in Hockley Heath in 1897, and was the third of the four children (three sons, one daughter) of John (a shoemaker) and Ruth Elizabeth (née Waters) who had married in 1892.
Continue reading “14th July 1916”11th July 1916
28-year-old Frank Eden died of wounds at 35th Casualty Clearing Station, Doullens, France on 11th July 1916, whilst serving as a Private with the 2nd Battalion, South Wales Borderers. He was the seventh son out of the nine surviving children (eight sons, one daughter) of John and Maria Eden of New Street, Castle Bromwich.
Seven of the eight brothers – Henry John (1873-1955), Albert Edward (1874-1957), Percy (1881-1966), Fred (1884-1950), Arthur (1886-1916), Frank (1888-1916) and John (born 1890) – served in the First World War. Two of the brothers were killed. Frank was the second of the brothers to die on war service. His older brother, Arthur, had been killed about six weeks earlier. The remaining brother, Ernest (born 1879), had been a regular soldier and, according to a newspaper article on the remarkable family, tried desperately to re-enlist on the outbreak of war, but was unable to owing to a slight lameness in the leg.
7th July 1916
We don’t have very much information about Company Sergeant Major Arthur Callaghan who was killed in action on 7th July 1916 whilst serving with the 9th Battalion Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment). He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. He is also commemorated locally on the Hockley Heath war memorial, as well as on memorials in St Thomas’s Church, Hockley Heath, and Umberslade Baptist Church.
5th July 1916
Private Walter Charles Taylor of “C” Company, 7th Battalion, the South Lancashire Regiment died on 5th July 1916. He was recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as being 18 years old, although his service record gives his age on enlistment on 23rd April 1915 as 19 years and three days. It seems that he lied about his age as, although 18-year-olds could enlist, soldiers couldn’t serve overseas until they had reached the age of 19.
4th July 1916
Two local men with a connection to Solihull were killed in action on 4th July 1916 – Second Lieutenant Albert Theodore Vardy, 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment and Private William Ewart Parrott, 6th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment.
3rd July 1916
Two men with a local connection are known to have died on 3rd Jul 1916 as a result of their war service:
- Lieutenant Colonel William Burnett DSO, attended Solihull School
- Second Lieutenant Siegfried Thomas Hinkley, attended Packwood Haugh School
2nd July 1916
Four local men are known to have died on 2nd July 1916, all serving with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment:
- Private John Franklin, of Olton
- Drummer Frank Nash, of Shirley
- Private William Richard Pittom, of Shirley
- Second Lieutenant Cyril George Williamson, former pupil of Solihull School
1st July 1916 – Solihull and Shirley
Seven men with a connection to Solihull or Shirley are known to have died on 1st July 1916:
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- Private James Burton, Middlesex Regiment
- Private Harold Clifton, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
- Private Frederick Percy Cooper, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
- Second Lieutentant William Henry Furse, Northumberland Fusiliers
- Private John Palmer Lyndon, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
- Private Richard James Smith, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
- Private James Webster, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
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1st July 1916 – Knowle etc
Ten local men with a connection to the area around Balsall Common, Knowle and, Dorridge died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1st July 1916:
- Second Lieutenant John Balkwill, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
- Second Lieutenant Geoffrey Jermyn Brand, General List (attached 101st Trench Mortar Battery)
- Private Thomas Cooper, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
- Captain Cyril Thomas Morris Davies, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
- Private Walter Jennings, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
- Lieutenant Colonel Maurice Nicholl Kennard MC, West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own)
- Captain Stratford Walter Ludlow, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
- Captain Cyril Thomas Morris Davies, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
- Private Alfred Mutlow, North Staffordshire Regiment
- Private George Arthur Smitten, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
- Captain Willingham Franklin Gell Wiseman, Lincolnshire Regiment
Three of the men – John Balkwill, Thomas Cooper, and Stratford Ludlow, are commemorated in a stained glass window in the Soldiers’ Chapel at Knowle Parish Church, which was given in memory of Stratford Ludlow by his father, Brigadier-General Ludlow. It was dedicated by the Bishop of Birmingham on 5th June 1921.
