Tag: Castle Bromwich

13th August 1915

13th August 1915 saw the loss of two men from Castle Bromwich, both serving with the Hampshire Regiment, and one man from Barston/Knowle, serving with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

  • Private Benjamin James Thomas Harris (apparently known as Thomas) serving with the 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, drowned after H.M.T. Royal Edward was torpedoed whilst transporting Commonwealth troops to Gallipoli. He was 19 years old.
  • Private Alfred Richard Irons was one of three brothers from the Irons family of Castle Bromwich and Yardley to die in the war. He died in Gallipoli, at sea, whilst serving with the 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, and is also presumed to have been aboard the Royal Edward. He was 18 years old.
  • Private Joseph Williams died of wounds received at Gallipoli whilst serving with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and is buried at sea.

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8th May 1915

8th May 1915 saw the deaths of two men with a connection to places now in the Solihull Borough:

  • Private Harry Betts, 8th Battalion, Australian Infantry (previously of Castle Bromwich)
  • Major John Cecil Lancaster, 1st Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment (member of the North Warwickshire Hunt)

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30th March 1915

On 30th March 1915, 19-year-old Rifleman Leslie Wilson from Catherine-de-Barnes, died of wounds in France whilst serving with the 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade, which had been in France since 6th November 1914, although Leslie joined them on 26th January 1915, according to his medal index card.

On the same day as Private Wilson died in France, Stoker 1st Class, David Bradbury, returning from leave, was fatally injured falling from a train as it passed through Castle Bromwich.

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25th January 1915

Private George Brotherton was one of 86 men from the Coldstream Guards to die on 25th January 1915, 68 of whom (including George) are commemorated at Le Touret Memorial, between Bethune and Armentieres in the Pas de Calais, France.

According to Soldiers Died in the Great War, George served with the 1st Battalion and was born in Evesham, lived in Castle Bromwich, and enlisted in Birmingham. It looks as if he must have moved to Castle Bromwich between 1911 and 1915, as he appears on the 1911 census living at 55 Warren Road, Washwood Heath, Saltley with his parents, Samuel and Martha, and his six siblings. He was listed as aged 18, and recorded as being a soldier in the Coldstream Guards. His medal index card shows that he entered a Theatre of War on 13th August 1914.

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30th October 1914

Private Albert James Watton was killed in action on 30th October 1914, serving with the 3rd Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment. We think this is the same person as A. W. Watton listed on the Castle Bromwich war memorial. Confusingly, he is also recorded in records as James Albert Watton, which was the name under which his birth was registered, and under which he is recorded on census records 1891-1911, and in the railway employment register. The transposition of his first names suggests that he was known by his middle name of Albert.

The Birmingham Daily Mail, 5th December 1914 includes the following announcement:

BIRMINGHAM SOLDIERS KILLED IN ACTION
Information has been received at Castle Bromwich of the death of Albert Watton, a reservist of the 3rd Worcestershire Regiment, who was killed in action near Vailly. At the time he was called up Watton was within a week of completing his period of serice on reserve. He was a shunter at Water Orton, thirty years of age, and married, without family.

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14th September 1914

It appears that the first of the World War I casualties in the field from places now within the Borough of Solihull died on 14th September 1914. This was during the First Battle of the Aisne, which marked the change from mobile warfare to trench warfare.

The locally-commemorated men who died were:

  • Rifleman Robert William Baker, born in Olton
  • Rifleman Eric Gordon Birch, born and lived in Castle Bromwich
  • Private Richard William Choate, commemorated at Olton
  • Captain Lord Guernsey, commemorated at Bickenhill and Forest Hall, Meriden

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Can you help identify casualties from Castle Bromwich?

It can be very difficult to identify in official records people who who have minimum information included on the war memorial.

The war memorial at Castle Bromwich is one of several that lists only initials and surnames, not ranks, regiments or years of death. We are struggling to identify the following people who are mentioned on the memorial:

  • B. T. Harris (is this Benjamin James Thomas Harris, died on Royal Edward 13/8/1915?)
  • C. Stone
  • A. W. Watton

If you have any further information on these men, please let us know. We’re especially keen to know their full names and when they died, so that we can be sure that we remember them on the centenary of their deaths.

Tracey
Heritage & Local Studies Librarian

tel.: 0121 704 6934
email: heritage@solihull.gov.uk

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