Two local men lost their lives on 6th October 1918 as a result of their war service. Charles Leonard Ball had been discharged from the Army so doesn’t actually appear on any official records as a casualty, although his name is recorded locally on Olton war memorial. Private Stephen Mumford MM, 50th Battalion, Machine Gun Corps died on active service in France, possibly as a prisoner of war.
5th October 1918
Two men with a local connection lost their lives on 5th October 1918 whilst on active service – Lance Corporal Thomas Cox Cranmer, 1st/8th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment was killed in France and Private Albert Victor Wiles, 11th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment died in Salonika.
4th October 1918
Private Matthew Willison, 17th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery died of wounds on 4th October 1918, aged 28. Born in Birmingham in 1890, he was the youngest of the three sons of parents James (a labourer) and Clarissa (née Breese) who had married at St Andrew’s Church, Bordesley in 1882. It seems that James had previously been married to Clarissa’s sister, Jane Fawn Breese, who died in 1881, aged 29. James and Jane had one son, Arthur Ernest (born 1876).
Despite several attempts to change the legislation, marrying the sister of a deceased wife was prohibited under the Marriage Act 1835. It wasn’t until 1907, when the Deceased Wife’s Sister’s Act was passed by Parliament, that it became lawful. Similar legislation enabling widows to marry the brother of their deceased husband wasn’t passed until 1921.
3rd October 1918
32-year-old Private Joseph Adams, 15 Platoon, D Company, 6th Battalion South Wales Borderers, died on 3rd October 1918 as a prisoner of war. Born in London in 1886, he was the eldest of three children born to parents Joseph and Katherine Alice (née Pausey/Pawsey) who had married at St Giles Cripplegate in 1885. Joseph was a hotel manager and, sometime between 1891-1901, the family moved to Knowle, where Joseph managed the Greswolde Hotel.
2nd October 1918
Gunner Frank Owen, 108th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, died of wounds on 2nd October 1918. Born in Berkswell in 1882, he was the youngest of the seven children (three sons, four daughters) of parents James (a bricklayer) and Ann (née Pullen) who had married in 1862 in Annie’s home parish of Stretton on Dunsmore. James died in 1915, aged 76, so was spared the knowledge of his youngest son’s death.
1st October 1918
30-year-old Armourer-Corporal Edwin Baskerville Parry was killed in action on 1st October 1918 whilst serving with the 16th Battalion, Canadian Infantry. He was born in Birmingham on 11th December 1887 and was the eldest of the four children of parents Edwin (a builder) and Annie (née Tanner) who had married in Edgbaston in April 1887. It was Edwin’s second marriage, as his first wife, Caroline, had died in 1884, aged 31, leaving him with a young son, Arthur Edwin Parry (1875-1955).
Continue reading “1st October 1918”29th September 1918
Two local men lost their lives on active service on 29th September 1918 – 38-year-old Private Allan Hobbins, 4th Battalion, Canadian Machine Gun Corps, and 20-year-old Second Lieutenant Christopher Ernest Neale, 10th Battalion, attached 2nd Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment.
27th September 1918
Three officers with a local connection lost their lives on active service on 27th September 1918 – Major Percival Charles Edwards DCM, 15th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment; Captain Edgar Godfrey Izon, 14th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment; and Lieutenant Maurice Jones, of the East Lancashire Regiment, attached to the 14th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment. The 14th and 15th Warwicks were attacking African Trench on 27th September, the first day of the Battle of the Canal du Nord. The trench was 1500 yards west of the village of Gouzeaucourt.
26th September 1918
21-year-old Signaller Frederick James Mellish died on 26th September 1918 whilst serving with the 297th Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery. He died at No. 3 Canadian General Hospital, Bolougne of bronchial pneumonia and wounds from a gas shell.
Continue reading “26th September 1918”25th September 1918
Three local men lost their lives on 25th September 1918 – Second Lieutenant Clive Marston Beaufoy, 10th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment; Lieutenant Leonard Stopford Brooke, 110th Squadron, Royal Air Force; and Private John Simpson, 11th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment.
Solihull Life 