Category: Places

25th April 1916

27-year-old Second Lieutenant Aubrey Herbert Bower Webster, 6th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, was accidentally killed on 25th April 1916 when a bomb exploded prematurely whilst he was on a training course in France.

He was born in Dorridge on 25th June 1888, during the time that his father, Rev. John Webster, was curate there. He lived in Packwood as a boy and was educated at King’s School, Worcester, where his name appears on the roll of honour. His name is also included on the King’s School window in Worcester Cathedral Cloisters, as well as on a memorial plaque at St Andrew’s Church, Ombersley, Worcestershire and on the village war memorial. As far as we know, he isn’t commemorated on a memorial in the Solihull Borough.

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23rd April 1916

Three local soldiers died in Egypt on Easter Sunday, 23rd April 1916, serving with the Queen’s Own Worcestershire Hussars (Worcester Yeomanry). Corporal (Acting Sergeant) Cyril Henry Coombs and Private Osborn Thomas Smith are both commemorated on the Jerusalem Memorial, and both are listed on the Solihull School war memorial. Leslie St Clair Cheape, a member of the North Warwickshire Hunt, also died on the same day and is commemorated on the Jerusalem Memorial. He was a Captain with the 1st Dragoon Guards, but was attached to the Queen’s Own Worcestershire Hussars.

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21st April 1916

Former gamekeeper, George Liddamore, was killed in action in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) on 21st April 1916, serving as a Private with the 9th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Born in Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk, he seems to have moved to Berkswell sometime between 1911 and 1915. As he was a gamekeeper, it seems possible that he worked on a local estate, maybe Berkswell Hall, although his name isn’t included on the local war memorial in Berkswell. He is commemorated on the Basra Memorial, Iraq and on the war memorial at St John the Baptist Church, North Luffenham.

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9th April 1916

Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Courtenay Brabazon Throckmorton, known as Courtenay, was killed at the Battle of Sannaiyat, Mesopotamia (now Iraq) on 9th April 1916. He was aged 49 and was the eldest son of  Captain Richard Acton Throckmorton, whose brother was Sir William Throckmorton of Coughton Court, Warwickshire, 9th Baronet. Courtenay was the heir presumptive to his uncle’s estates.

The local link is that he was a member of the North Warwickshire Hunt, which was based in Meriden.

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5th April 1916

Private George William Kippen was killed in action in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) on 5th April 1916, serving with the 9th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was the eldest of five children born to parents George (born 1861), a gun screwer, and Jane (née Farrington) and he seems to have had rather a difficult life before enlisting in the Army in March 1914. Two of his three brothers are also known to have served in the Armed Forces.

Private Arthur Watton, also with the 9th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, died of wounds on the same day in the same place. The Battalion was mobilised for war in June 1915 and sent to Gallipoli. Owing to severe losses from combat, disease and harsh weather, the Division was evacuated to Mudros and then Egypt in January 1916. On 16th February 1916 the Battalion embarked for Basra from Suez to defend British interests against Turk forces, arriving on 28th February 1916.

Both men are commemorated on the Basra Memorial.

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16th March 1916

Lieutenant Glyn Cuthbert Robertson was shot and killed by a sniper at Neuville St Vaast, France whilst inspecting trenches previously taken over from the French. There is a slight discrepancy in the date of death, with some sources giving this as 15th March.

Although Glyn was born in Southgate, London in 1893, the family actually seems to have been living in Warwickshire for several years. His parents, Arthur (an insurance inspector) and Agnes (née Fitter), were married at Edgbaston parish church in 1889, and his sister, Dorothy, was born in Egbaston in 1890. Glyn was baptised at Hampton-in-Arden on 22nd July 1893, with his parents’ address at the time being recorded as Pembroke House, Bounds Green, London and his father’s occupation as clerk.

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31st January 1916

Private Joseph Harrison, who died on 31st January 1916 serving as a Private with the 1st Battalion, King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, was born in Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire in 1887. Apart from his war service, he seems to have lived in Baddesley Clinton for his whole life, as did many of his family, who seem to have had a long association with Baddesley Clinton Hall as servants.

On the 1891 census, all four of the live-in female servants (housekeeper, cook, housemaid and kitchen maid) were members of the Harrison family – the sister of Joseph’s father, and three of her nieces.

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