Two local men lost their lives on active service on 16th September 1916 – 41-year-old Private Alexander Arthur Astle, 14th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment and 23-year-old Company Sergeant Major Arthur Eric Townley, 7th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps.
4th September 1916
John Howard Cotterrell was killed on 4th September 1916 serving as a Lance Corporal with the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. He was born in Chessetts Wood, Knowle in 1882 and was the youngest of the seven children (five sons, two daughters) born to parents Edward (a gardener) and Alice (née Clark) who had married at Knowle in November 1871.
4th June 1916
Four young men from the Solihull area lost their lives on 4th June 1916 whilst on active service in the First World War: Private Matthew Richard Barlow; Private Stanley Holt; Lance Corporal Austin Geoffrey Leigh (all serving with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment); and Second Lieutenant Philip Leslie Patterson, North Staffordshire Regiment. All four men were aged between 17 and 21.
Solihull Life 