Two local men were killed in action on 24th August 1916 – Sergeant Charles Rowney, 8th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, and Lieutenant Harry Weston Webb, 5th Battalion, Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry. Both men have no known grave and are commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
21st August 1916
Private Bertram Matthews, 1st/7th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment, died on 21st August 1916 and is buried at Blighty Valley Cemetery, Authuille Wood, France. Born in Walsall, he was baptised alongside his older brother, Harry on 24th November 1878 at St Mark’s Church, Birmingham. Their father’s occupation was given as “traveller” and their abode was 9 Bridgeman Street, Walsall. By 1881, the family had moved to Aston, and they then moved to Olton c. 1885.
20th August 1916
31-year-old Private Alfred Knibb was killed in action on 20th August 1916 serving with the 1st/9th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was born in 1885 in the parish of Tanworth-in-Arden and was the 9th child and youngest son of parents Edwin and Ellen (née Keen). The couple had married in 1867 in Knowle and went on to have 12 children, of whom 11 (five sons, six daughters) were still living by the time of the 1911 census.
19th August 1916
19-year-old Christopher Henry Cranmer died of wounds in Salonika on 19th August 1916 whilst serving as a Corporal with the 7th Battalion Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry. On the same day, Lance Corporal Arthur Busby died of wounds in France whilst serving with the 1st/5th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
18th August 1916
Three local men died on 18th August 1916: Private James Samuel Hopkins (Worcester Regiment, attached to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment); Private Herbert John Massey (6th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment); and Private William Henry Bolton (6th Battalion, Duke of Edinburgh’s (Wiltshire) Regiment). All three were gardeners by trade, although James Samuel Hopkins had previously been a soldier in the militia and served in the Boer War.
15th August 1916
Lieutenant Theodore Newman Hall died at Rouen on 15th August 1916 from wounds received on 23rd July whilst serving with the Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry. He was an only child and was born on 12th November 1894 in Sligo, Ireland.
His father, Rev. William Aidan Newman Hall, known as Aidan, was a minister with the Congregational Church, who moved to Sligo in July 1892, having previously attended Mount Pleasant Church, Hastings and been a student at Cheshunt Hall, Hertfordshire. He married his wife, Alice, in the same year.
14th August 1916
Stanley Theodore Pryce was killed on 14th August 1916, serving as a Rifleman with the 12th Battalion Rifle Brigade. Born in Knowle on 15th July 1893, and baptised at Knowle parish church the following month, he was the ninth of 12 children born to parents John (a coachman) and Marie (née Dieudonné). Marie was a French national, who was born in Carentan in Normandy. It’s not known when she moved to England but she and John married in Oswestry in 1879, when they were both aged 21.
13th August 1916
35-year-old Private Arthur Percival Huggins was killed in action on 13th August 1916 serving with the 11th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was the youngest of five children (three boys, two girls) and was born in Smethwick, Staffordshire in 1879, although his older siblings were all born in Alvechurch and Redditch, Worcestershire.
By 1881, the family had moved to Harborne, Birmingham, where their father, Richard, was working as a ledger clerk. Ten years later, the family was in Derby and everyone apart from Arthur was still in the city in 1901. Arthur seems to have been boarding in Manchester whilst working as an assurance clerk.
9th August 1916
Private Arthur Barnwell died on 9th August 1916 whilst serving with the 2nd Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment. He was born at Meriden Union Workhouse in 1895 and baptised at Meriden parish church. His parents, William Barnwell and Kathleen Capewell, had married at Berkswell on 5th November 1889. William was a labourer and Kathleen a servant.
8th August 1916
Rifleman Horace Frederick Cooke and Rifleman William John Hextall, both died on 8th August 1916 whilst serving with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. Both are buried in Essex Farm Cemetery and neither is commemorated locally as far as we know, as they had both moved out of the area before enlisting.
Solihull Life 