sharing Solihull's local history
Private William Tarver, 1st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment, died on 26th July 1915 in France. Born in Solihull in 1880, he was the second of seven children born to Henry Osborne Tarver and his wife, Elizabeth.
Henry and Elizabeth were both born in Gloucestershire, and their eldest son, Thomas, was born there in 1879. They had moved to Solihull by the time of William’s birth a year later, and were living at 19, Blossomfield by the time of the 1881 census. Henry was recorded as a waggoner.
Arthur Roberts of Shirley died on 16th July 1915 whilst serving as a Lance Sergeant with the 3rd Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment, apparently having been accidentally killed. He was born in Shirley, the fourth son of Buckinghamshire-born blacksmith, William Roberts and his wife, Elizabeth, who was born in Winterbourne, Nottinghamshire. The family appears to have moved from Yardley Wood to Solihull Lodge sometime between 1883 and 1888.
It’s known that Arthur joined the militia on 5th December 1904, aged 17 years 8 months, serving with the 6th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment. He joined the regular Army on 10th June 1905 at Worcester, giving his occupation as a porter, and his age as 18 years, two months. He had a fresh complexion, dark brown hair and blue eyes and was 5ft 4ins tall by the end of 1905, half an inch taller than when he enlisted. He had also put on weight during the first six months of his service, weighing 132 pounds (9 st 6lbs) compared to 119 (8st 7lbs) on enlistment. An identifying feature was that he had a large, circular scar on his right hip.
Although Frank Jabez Meades was born in Olton in 1889, and was killed in action on 4th July 1915, his name is not listed on the Olton war memorial. It looks as if the family moved away from Olton between 1891 and 1901 after at least 10 years’ residence there so, presumably, there were no relatives of friends still in the parish to add Frank’s name to the war memorial.
His short service attestation record gives his place of birth as Yardley. However, this seems likely to be incorrect – he was living with his parents and siblings at Reservoir Cottage, Warwick Road, Olton on the 1891 census when he was aged one, and his entry in Soldiers Died in the Great War lists his place of birth as Olton.
John Dyott Willmot of Coleshill, the second of four children of George Dyott Willmot J.P. (1863-1921) and Nellie Pratchett Willmott (formerly Heatley) (1869-1956), was killed in action in France on 3rd July 1915, at the age of 19. He was a Lieutenant with 6th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment and was born in King’s Norton in 1896, although the family had moved to Blyth Cottage, Coleshill by the time of the 1901 census.
The local connection is that John Dyott Willmot attended Packwood Haugh School before going on to Malvern College where he was known as a great athlete, winning the open high jump in 1913 and 1914 and the long jump in 1914. He was in Mr. P. R. Farren’s house at Malvern, and became a School Prefect. He was a member of the Officers’ Training Corps at the College.
His younger brother, Robert Dyott Willmot (1898-1918), also died on active service in the war at the age of 19, having followed in his brother’s footsteps at Packwood Haugh and Malvern College. Their elder sister, Mary Georgina Dyott Willmott (known as Georgina) (1894-1985), served as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse after attending Clarendon House boarding school for ladies in Leamington Spa. Their parents were commandants of the Vicarage Hospital, Coleshill. The youngest child, Honor Christine Dyott Willmot (1906-1984) was too young to play a part in the war.
George Frederick Bevins was born in Sparkhill, Birmingham on 11th June 1896. His father, Henry Sharpe Bevins (1863-1920), was a builder and contractor, born in Birmingham. His mother, Emily (née Payne) was born in Monkspath (according to the 1891 census) or Hockley Heath (according to the 1901 census). The couple had married in 1888 and went on to have nine children, of whom one had died by 1911, and three sons died in the war.
25-year-old regular soldier, Corporal Adam Edgar, died on 19th June 1915 serving with the 2nd Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment. On the same day, Private William Albert Birch was killed in action serving with the 4th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment.
19-year-old Frank Ferris died on 16th June 1915 whilst serving as a Private with the Wiltshire Regiment. Born in Hockley Heath, he was baptised at St Thomas’s Church, Nuthurst Lane, Hockley Heath, although the parish register entry is a little confusing.
Former railway clerk William Brough Berry Harrison died of wounds in France on 10th June 1915, aged 20, serving as a Corporal with the 1st/7th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
He was born on 17th October 1894, the third and youngest child of bricklayer’s labourer Leonard Lovelace Beverley Harrison (known as Beverley) and his wife, Emma (née West) who had married on 30th May 1886 at St Alphege Church, Solihull at which time the groom was aged 30 and the bride was 21. The newly-weds set up home at Elmdon Heath, where their two eldest children, Florette Annie and Alfred, were born in 1887 and 1889 respectively. At the time of Alfred’s baptism on 14th April 1889 the family was living at Lugtrout Lane, Catherine-de-Barnes.
Harold Leonard Darby was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham in March 1893 and died in France on 6th June 1915, aged 22, whilst serving as a Lance-Sergeant with the 1st/6th Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He is commemorated on the war memorial at St Patrick’s Church, Salter Street, but is listed as Sgt. Harold Derby [sic]. An order of service for a memorial service at the church on 3rd September 1916 records him as Sergeant Harold Leonard Darby, although this indicated he died in May 1915, not June.
Lance Corporal Harry Pugh, 4th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment, was killed in action on 4th June 1915. He was the sixth of ten children, and the second to be killed in the war. His brother, Harold, died on 12th March 1915.
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