sharing Solihull's local history
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.
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.
Private Frank Barker, 10th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment died in Germany as a prisoner of war on 16th September 1918. The cause of death was given as “P.U.O.” (Pyrexia of unknown origin), which was usually the term given to trench fever – an unpleasant bacterial infection transmitted by body lice.
Three local men lost their lives on 30th August 1918 whilst on active service – Private Henry Baughan, 1st Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment; Private Robert Woods, 15th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment; and Private Alline Mountford Woollaston, 11th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers.
Two men from Shirley, Solihull lost their lives on active service on 23rd August 1918 – Private William Frank Ginder, 1st Battalion London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) and Gunner Frederick Thorne, D Battery, 15th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery.
They Made It Happen! exhibition in the Heritage Gallery on the first floor of The Core Library, Solihull from July-September 2018 celebrated the self-build housing associations which were set up by people so desperate for a home of their own to rent that they built their own, and then rented it from the housing association. At the time, they had no expectation of being able to buy the houses although, when regulations were relaxed a few years later, most were subsequently able to buy.
Continue reading “Self-build housing in Solihull”Two men with a local connection lost their lives on active service on 15th July 1918. Lieutenant Ronald John Gilman, Warwickshire Yeomanry, was 20 years old and he died of injuries received after enemy torpedoes hit his troop ship en route to France. On the same day, Old Contemptible, Private John Richmond, 2nd Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment, died in a German Prisoner of War camp.
Private Arthur Sydney Neale died on 15th June 1918 whilst serving with 6th Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment. He was born in Shirley in 1898 and was the seventh of the ten children (eight sons, two daughters) of parents George Henry (a farm labourer) and Sarah (née Bishop) who had married in Solihull in 1884. Arthur was one of four brothers to serve in the Armed Forces. He is pictured above (left) with two fellow soldiers.
Continue reading “15th June 1918”Two men with a local connection died on 30th May 1918. Captain Adie Wale, 186th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, died after the hospital in which he was being treated for wounds was bombed by the Germans on the night of 29th/30th May. Private Henry Walker, 8th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment died of wounds on the same day.
Second Lieutenant Kenneth William Allan Duncan, aged 23, died on 8th May 1918 serving with the 10th Battalion The King’s (Liverpool Regiment), attached to the 6th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders. On the same day, Private Ernest Austin, 11th Battalion Durham Light Infantry, died of illness in a German Prisoner of War hospital.
Solihull Life 