Capturing, preserving and sharing Solihull's history. Also commemorating local casualties from the First World War #SolihullRemembers
Hubert Lindsay Kearne, formerly a Private with the Devonshire Regiment, died on 11th February 1921 having drowned at Hastings. The coroner recorded a verdict of death by drowning, declaring that there was insufficient evidence as to how the young man came to be in the water.
Continue reading “11th February 1921”
On 26th August 1920, 23-year-old farmer’s assistant, George White, died of tuberculosis in Bramcote Sanatorium, near Nuneaton, two years after the death of his younger brother on active service.
Bramcote Hospital had opened in 1907 as a smallpox hospital but, as there had not been a case treated there by 1912, it was converted in 1913 into a sanatorium for the treatment of those with consumption.
Francis George Harris, formerly a Gunner with the Royal Garrison Artillery, died at Birmingham General Hospital on 29th December 1919. He had been discharged from the Army in March 1919 so does not appear as a war casualty on official records, although he is commemorated locally in the Soldiers’ Chapel, Knowle. He is also listed on the Roll of Honour for Packwood amongst those who served.
Private Wilfred Garner died of pneumonia on 28th June 1919 at 250 Highbridge Road, Boldmere, Sutton Coldfield, aged 20. He had served in the Army from 1915 until discharge on 20th March 1919.
Driver Reginald Cornelius Hall died in France at the 47th Field Ambulance on 12th February 1919 with A Battery, 70th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. He was the second of two brothers to die in the war as his younger brother, Francis, died on 23rd February 1917. Both of the brothers served as Drivers with the Royal Field Artillery.
Company Sergeant Major Frederick James Carless DCM died of pneumonia whilst serving with the 1st/5th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers. He was 22 years old.
Captain Edward Rainsford Harrison, 524th Company, 61st Divisional Train, Army Service Corps, died in hospital in Abbeville, France on Christmas Day, 1918. The cause of death was double pneumonia following influenza contracted whilst on active service.
Private Horace Alfred Hawkes, 5th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment, died at Heathcote Infectious Diseases Hospital, Leamington Spa on 23rd December 1918. He was born in Leek Wootton on 15th May 1895 and was the seventh of the eight children (three sons, five daughters) of parents, Thomas and Emily (née Biddle), who had married in Cubbington in 1875.
Two local men died on 9th November 1918 – Private Reginald Blamire, 1st Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and Private Cecil Raymond Nickson, 20th Hussars.
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.
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