37-year-old Private Edward Jones, 8th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment, was killed in action on 4th November 1918. Born in 1881 in Aston, he was the third of the six children (three sons, three daughters) of parents Herbert (a clerk) and Ellen (née Gunner) who had married in Birmingham in 1875. One of the children – Herbert Richard Jones (1878-1880) – died before reaching two years of age.
3rd November 1918
Captain Wilfred Eric Wright, 5th Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment, died in hospital in Scarborough as a result of contracting pneumonia following influenza. He was born in Solihull in 1894 and the family was living in Lode Lane by 1897 before moving to Acocks Green by 1911.
2nd November 1918
Sergeant William Henry Wedge, 2nd/6th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, was killed in action on 2nd November 1918. Born in Birmingham in 1898, he was the only son of parents, William Henry Wedge (a stamper in a cycle works) and Martha Higgins, who had married at St Martin’s Church, Birmingham on 31st January 1897.
1st November 1918
Miss Dora Phillips, volunteer at Berkswell Rectory Auxiliary Hospital, died on 1st November 1918, aged 21. On the same day, Lance Corporal Thomas Charles Thompson, 2nd/8th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment, was killed in action in France.
31st October 1918
Second Lieutenant Thomas Pargetter Jones was killed in action on 31st October 1918 whilst serving in France with the Royal Air Force. He was the third of three brothers to be killed in the war – younger brothers Charles Victor (1892-1916) and Collins Jeffreys (1893-1916) enlisted in the 1st Birmingham Pals together on 1st January 1915 and died within hours of each other on 22nd/23rd July 1916.
30th October 1918
Gunner Ernest Solomon Bradley, 59th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, died of pneumonia at No. 22 Casualty Clearing Station on 30th October 1918, aged 39, He was born in Shirley in 1879 and was the fifth of the ten known children (two sons, eight daughters) of parents William (a wheelwright) and Mary (née Millett). One of the children – Christabel Cecilia – died in 1884 at less than one year old. Another daughter, Florence Margaret, appears to have died in childbirth in 1904, aged 31.
27th October 1918
28-year-old Company Quartermaster Sergeant George Ernest Jenks, Canadian Railway Troops, died of pleural pneumonia at the Camp Hospital, Niagara on 27th October 1918 after suffering from influenza.
25th October 1918
Two local men lost their lives on 25th October 1918 whilst on active service – Private Francis Richard Corbett, 1st Battalion, Duke of Edinburgh’s (Wiltshire) Regiment and Captain Bertram Walter Mockley Pearson, Army Service Corps.
24th October 1918
Two local men died on 24th October 1918 whilst on active service – Sapper John Bertram Harris, 3rd Special Company, Royal Engineers and Private James Powers, 2nd/7th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
23rd October 1918
Five men with a local connection died on 23rd October 1918:
- Lance Corporal Harry Matthew Bradburn, 20th Battalion Manchester Regiment
- Private Oliver Cranmer, 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment
- Corporal Frederick Alfred Johnson, A Battery, 115th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
- Shoeing Smith Frank Selfe, Z Battery, 5th Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery
- Private John Howard Whittle, 1st/8th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Solihull Life 