Regular soldier, Acting Bombardier Arthur John Berry MM, 49th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery died of wounds on 16th July 1917. Born in Shirley in 1889, he was the third of the seven children (five sons, two daughters) born to parents Samuel, a labourer, and Esther (née Gardner) who had married in 1885.
15th July 1917
Private Samuel Capewell, 2nd Battalion Scots Guards, was killed in action on 15th July 1917. He was born in Birmingham on 17th February 1877, and was the eighth of the nine children (seven sons, two daughters) of parents William (a painter) and Hannah (née Jones) who had married at All Saints, Hockley, Birmingham in 1859.
8th July 1917
Sapper Ernest William Bailey was killed in action on 8th July 1917 serving with 218th Field Company, Royal Engineers. Born in Bordesley in 1888, he was the second of three children of parents Christopher William and Sarah (née Kimberley) who had married at Holy Trinity, Bordesley, in 1885. His sister, Elsie, was born in 1887, whilst the youngest child, Alfred, was born in 1891, by which time the family had moved to Hampton-in-Arden.
6th July 1917
Two local officers died in France on 6th July 1917: Captain Cyril Arthur Mecrate Butcher 10th (Service) Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment (attached 62nd Trench Mortar Battery) and Second Lieutenant Henry Joseph Watlington, Royal Flying Corps.
3rd July 1917
Private George Edwin Taylor died on 3rd July 1917, serving with the 1st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was born in Knowle in 1880 but had left the village by the age of one, when his parents had moved to Balsall Heath.
2nd July 1917
Private William Barry Lane, of Shirley, died on 2nd July 1917 whilst on active service with the 178th Company Mechanical Transport, Army Service Corps. He was the second of the eight children (four boys, four girls) of parents Walter Charles (a billiard marker) and Lizzie (née Barry) who had married in 1886. Of the couple’s eight children, one of the boys and three of the girls had died in infancy by 1911 (Walter Charles 1887-1892, Ethel Annie Mabel 1890-1892, May 1894-1896, and Annie, who was born and died in 1900). Tragically, two more of the boys would die in their 20s – one in the First World War, and one is believed to have died in a private asylum in Knowle.
30th June 1917
Private Harold Tetley was killed in action on 30th June 1917 whilst serving with the 16th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Born in Small Heath in 1886, Harold attended Wellesbourne School, Acocks Green before going onto Solihull School, where he is listed as a boarder in 1901. His family was living in Bentley Heath, Solihull in 1901.
24th June 1917
Three local men are known to have lost their lives on 24th June 1917 whilst on active service: Second Lieutenant Rupert Edward Everitt, 299th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery; Private William James Leake, 1st/7th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment; and Gunner Henry Smith, 207th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery.
20th June 1917
Regular soldier, Sergeant George Holtham, was killed in action on 20th June 1917 serving with the 1st Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was 26 years old and had worked for a firm of manufacturing chemists before joining the Army in February 1909.
14th June 1917
Company Sergeant Major William Joseph Richard Swann, 10th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment died of wounds on 14th June 1917, aged 25. He was the eldest of the two sons of parents Samuel (a Company Sergeant Major (later Military Mechanist Quarter Master Sergeant) in the Royal Engineers) and Kate (née Shakespear) who had married in May 1890 at Chirst Church, Aston Park. In 1891, the couple were living in St Mary’s Barracks, Chatham, Kent. Their son, William, was born in Chatham on 22nd May 1891. Their second child, Sidney Norman Percival Swann, was born in Sheerness on 6th July 1892.
Solihull Life 