Tag: 1916

29th March 1916

Private Harry Bradford Kerbey, 2nd/6th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment, died in the Military Hospital, South Tidworth, Hampshire, on 29th March 1916 and is buried in Sutton Road Cemetery, Southend-on-Sea.

He was born in Charmouth, Dorset and was the second-youngest of the nine children of a General Practitioner, Dr William Holman Kerbey, and his wife, Fanny (née Bradford). Dr Kerbey died in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex on 28th June 1908. His widow, who was born in Leominster, Herefordshire, and her youngest daughter were recorded as visitors in Birmingham in 1911. Harry Kerbey doesn’t appear to be on census returns in 1911 but Soldiers Died in the Great War gives his residence as Olton and his place of enlistment as Birmingham.

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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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24th February 1916

20-year-old Sergeant Alfred Rabone, the only son amongst the four children of parents Alfred Harry (who seems to have been known as Harry) and Jane Rabone, was killed in action on 24th February 1916, serving with the 10th Battalion, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.

According to the 1901 census Alfred was born in Olton in 1896, although baptism records show that he was baptised at Knowle parish church, aged 3 months, at which time his parents were living in Chessetts Wood and his father was working as a brickmaker. Soldiers Died in the Great War, and the 1911 census, both give his place of birth as Knowle.

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21st February 1916

23-year-old Private Walter Tarver, a gardener by trade, was killed in action on 21st February at Etaples, France, serving with the 8th Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment. His older brother, Harry, a baker, was also killed on active service.

Walter was born in Cubbington, near Leamington Spa, in 1893, the second youngest of four sons born to parents Thomas and Elizabeth who lived in the village. Harry and Walter both joined up in September 1914 and both are listed as being old boys of Cubbington School. Walter is commemorated on the war memorial at Berkswell but we haven’t been able to find his connection with the village, although there has been speculation that perhaps he worked as a gardener at Berskwell Hall. His brother Harry is not listed on the Berkswell memorial.

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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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21st January 1916

Lieutenant Robert Laurence Needham, known as Laurie, was killed in action in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) on 21st January 1916 during the Siege of Kut el Amara (the First Battle of Kut), 100 miles south of Baghdad.

Born in Brighton on 10th April 1889, Laurie and his younger brother, Frederic Gilbert (known as Gilbert), both attended Solihull School after boarding at a private school in Brighton.

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17th January 1916

Second Lieutenant Charles Hugh Davies died in France on 17th January 1916 after a piece of shrapnel pierced the roof of his dug-out and struck him on the head as he was sleeping. He was 28 years old and was serving with the 9th Battalion Welsh Regiment. Although born in Stoke Bishop, Bristol in June 1887, his father, Thomas Davidson Davies, was from Camarthenshire, Wales.

Charles was the eldest of the three sons of Thomas Davidson Davies (Chief Mathematical Master at Clifton College) and his wife, Elinor Lucy (née Thomas). His local connection to the Solihull area is that he was a boarder at Packwood Haugh School from 1899 until 1901 when he went on to Rugby School, winning a General Exhibition before he left in 1905. He went up to Magdalen College, Oxford with a Classical Demyship (scholarship).

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9th January 1916

On 9th January 1916, 43-year-old former builder’s labourer, Charles Day, died at the General Hospital in Alexandria, serving as a Private with the 9th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

He was born in Knowle in 1872 to parents John (an agricultural labourer) and Ann Day, and was the fifth of their six children to be born in the village 1864-1874. Ann had two older children from her first marriage to George Day, who was actually the older brother of her second husband. Ann and George married in 1855 at St Martin’s Church, Birmingham, but George died in 1860, aged 26. In 1864, Ann married his 21-year-old brother, John, at Knowle.

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