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.
27th January 1919
Company Sergeant Major Frederick James Carless DCM died of pneumonia whilst serving with the 1st/5th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers. He was 22 years old.
2nd September 1918
Private James Walter Brampton, 4th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, died on 2nd September 1918, aged 26. He was married with one daughter, Phyllis Maud (1915-1997).
9th August 1918
Two men with a local connection lost their lives on active service on 9th August 1918, the day after the start of the Battle of Amiens – Lance Corporal William Broadfield 2nd/10th Battalion, London Regiment, and Private Herbert Ronald King, 25th Battalion, Canadian Infantry.
28th June 1918
Three men with a local connection lost their lives on active service on 28th June 1918:
- Private Harry Cross, 1st Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry
- Private Robert Henry Smith, 15th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
- Private George Henry Taylor, 12th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment
2nd March 1918
Private Geoffrey Jinks, aged 25, died of illness on 2nd March 1918. He was serving with the 2nd/8th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment, but was transferred to the 288th Area Employment Company, Labour Corps.
7th October 1917
21-year-old John Henry Upton died of wounds on 7th October 1917, serving as a Private with 1/6 Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was the second of the four children of parents John Garfield Upton (a cab man) and Caroline (née Briscoe) who had married in Birmingham in 1894.
20th September 1917
Five local men were killed in action on 20th September 1917. This was the first day of the Battle of the Menin Road Ridge, which lasted until 25th September and marked a change in British infantry tactics.
Although previous attacks had penetrated the lightly-defended German front lines, exhausted troops then came under sustained counter-attack and failed to penetrate the second line. The new strategy was designed to attack a small part of the front line, first with heavy bombardment, and then by troops in strength under a creeping barrage 1000 yards deep, protecting the advancing infantry. Once through the lines and having reached their objectives, troops were then to stop and dig in. A second wave of infantry could then pass through to attack the next objective.
Local men who lost their lives in this action were:
- Private Richard Sydney Greaves, 6th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment
- Private Thomas Henry Lloyd, 10th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment
- Sergeant Septimus Pryce, 6th Battalion, Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry
- Corporal Percy John Shirley, 10th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
- Sergeant Harry Taylor, 10th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
17th September 1917
Private Samuel Chew, 5th Battalion Berkshire Regiment, died of wounds on 17th September 1917. He was born in Birmingham in 1898 and was the youngest of the three children of parents, Richard (a hawker of salt) and Ada (née Wood). He had an older sister Annie (1893-1925) and an older brother, Richard (1895-1954).
22nd August 1917
Four local men died on 22nd August 1917: Corporal Alfred John Collins, 2nd/4th Battalion, Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry; Private Charles Edmund Frost, 6th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry; Private Albert Maybury, 2/4th Battalion, Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry; and Private Frederick George Skidmore, 1st/7th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment. The first three have no known grave and so they are commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial.
Solihull Life 