Category: Places

2nd December 1915

There is a discrepancy in records as regards the age of Squadron Sergeant Major William Bloomer, who died on 2nd December 1915 whilst serving with the 3rd Regiment, Canadian Mounted Rifles. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists his age at death as 42, suggesting a birth year of 1873. However, an announcement in the newspaper gives his age as 40, which fits with census returns, and gives a suggested birth year of 1875:

Information has been received in Birmingham that Squadron-sergeant-major William Bloomer, of the 3rd Canadian Mounted Royal Rifles, has been killed in action in France. He was the second son of Mr and Mrs Giles T. Bloomer, of Dorridge, and was forty years of age.
Birmingham Daily Mail, 11th December 1915
However, Canadian records give his date of birth as 11th December 1879. All records agree that he was born in Halesowen, and that his father was Giles Thomas Bloomer.

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24th October 1915

Private Thomas Henry Parkes, from Solihull and Hockley Heath, died of wounds on 24th October 1915 at Gallipoli, serving with the 8th Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment). He was the youngest of the seven surviving children (out of 12 born) of parents William Parkes, a bricklayer, and his wife Rhoda (née Hayes) who had married at St Alphege Church, Solihull on 27th July 1874.

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14th October 1915

Donkeyman Wilfred Gowing of merchant ship SS Combe, died when the ship was lost en route from Liverpool to Archangel, Russia. Wilfred was born in Cranworth, Norfolk on 16th September 1891 and was the fifth of the seven children of parents Horace, a gamekeeper, and Mary Ann (née Wilkins) who had married at Mary’s home parish of Temple Balsall in 1883.

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13th October 1915

Four local men lost their lives on 13th October 1915. They have no known grave and are commemorated on the Loos Memorial:

  • Second Lieutenant Ostcliffe Harold Beaufort, North Staffordshire Regiment
  • Private Donald Ewen, London Regiment (London Scottish)
  • Private Joseph Frederick Harding, Gloucestershire Regiment
  • Lieutenant (Temporary Captain) Harley Raymond Russell, Gloucestershire Regiment
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9th October 1915

The war memorials at Catherine-de-Barnes and Solihull both include the name of Lance Corporal James Uriah Hill of the Coldstream Guards, although his local connection with the area isn’t known. He was killed in action at Vermelles, on 9th October 1915.

He was born in Saltley to parents James Uriah and Mary Ann (née Wragg) who had married at Nechells in 1877. His birth was registered in 1892, although there is a slight discrepancy in age with other official records suggesting a date of birth of 1889/1890. The couple did have another son called James Uriah, born 8th September 1883 at Nechells but this child seems to have died aged one, and is buried in Witton Cemetery, Birmingham. It was common practice in the past for a child to have the same name as a dead sibling to ensure that a favourite name continued for another generation. Mary Ann herself died in 1900, aged 44, and James Uriah married Sarah Clay in 1905.

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5th October 1915

Frank Baulcombe was born in Kenilworth on 18th February 1891, the fourth child and eldest son of the ten children born to parents Frederick (an insurance agent, previously a confectioner and baker) born in Eastbourne, Sussex and Selina (née Clarke), born at Moreton Bagot, Warwickshire. The couple had married at Claverdon on 5th January 1886. Frederick was a widower – he had married his first wife, Mary Page, on 31st January 1882 in Kenilworth  and their only child, Marian Bertha Baulcombe, was born in Leamington at the end of the year. Mary died in 1884, aged 28.

Frank, a gardener at Umberslade before the war, was killed in action at Neuve Chappelle on 5th October 1915, whilst serving as a Private with the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. He was 24 years old.

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3rd October 1915

Albert Herbert Farrow, who seems to have been known as Herbert, was born in Roughton, Norfolk on 25th August 1885 to parents Jonathan and Sarah Farrow. He enlisted as a regular soldier with the Coldstream Guards on 10th January 1905 and served five years with the colours, including two years in Egypt. He then joined the Reserve, when he became a gamekeeper. On the 1911 census he is shown as living at Marston Green and his occupation is recorded as under gamekeeper.

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1st October 1915

Private Frederick Thomas Gardner, 9th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, died of wounds on 1st October 1915 aboard the hospital ship, Formosa. Born in Crewkerne, Somerset, on 17th September 1896, he was the elder of the two children of parents, Thomas (a butcher) and Elizabeth (née Dunster) who had married in Winchester district in 1894. His brother, Edwin James (1898-1950) was born in Yeovil on 20th September 1898.

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30th September 1915

Private William Burley, 10th (Service) Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, died of wounds on 30th September 1915. He was born on 5th November 1895 in Islington, London and was the youngest of nine children born to George (a hairdresser) and Elizabeth (née Mocock) who had married at St Mark’s, Shoreditch on 19th December 1882.

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