At Solihull Central Library, we have copies of the Solihull parish magazine for the First World War period. The magazines give a fascinating insight into life on the Home Front, and show a tightly-knit, active and caring community.
22nd December 1914
Private John Charles Smith was killed in action at Givenchy on 22nd December 1914, aged 21. He died just over four months after enlisting in the Coldstream Guards.
According to the information in De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour, he was the third son of Joseph and Ann Smith of Park Lane Corner, Berkswell. He was born on 12th April 1893 at Temple Balsall and was educated at Burton Green, near Kenilworth, and Temple Balsall. He enlisted on 18th August 1914 and was posted to France in December, shortly before he was killed.
He is commemorated at Berkswell and he is one of more than 13,400 soldiers with no known grave who is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial, Pas de Calais, France.
Help us identify Borough casualties
So far, we have over 800 names on our list of those from places now in the Solihull Borough, or from the Solihull Rural District, who died as a result of their war service. However, we are struggling to identify in official records some of the people named on local memorials. This can be because there are too many people of the same name, or because we don’t have full names or service details, or because we have found possible individuals but can’t be sure of any local connection.
If you can help with information on any of the following, especially exact dates of death, please let us know:
31st October 1914
Four local men from three different regiments died on 31st October 1914:
- Private Alfred Allcock, 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen’s Bays), of Shirley
- Private Charles William Assinder (1889-1914), Royal Warwickshire Regiment, commemorated at Olton
- Private Cyril Frederick Collett (1894-1914), Worcestershire Regiment, commemorated at Solihull
- Drummer Harry William George (1890-1914), Worcestershire Regiment, commemorated at Marston Green Cottage Homes
26th September 1914
Corporal Claude Percival Wilks (listed as Wilkes in some records), 2nd Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, was killed in action at the Battle of Aisne on 26th September 1914, aged 22. He has no known grave and is commemorated on Le Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial. He is also commemorated locally on war memorials at Catherine-de-Barnes, Elmdon, and Solihull.
James Evans of Solihull
Solihull War Memorial includes two people with the name James Evans – Driver James Evans of the Army Service Corps, and Private James Evans of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers.
We haven’t been able to identify these men on the Commonwealth War Graves website, or in the Soldiers Died in the Great War list.
If you have any information on either of these individuals, please let us know.
Tracey
Heritage & Local Studies Librarian
tel.: 0121 704 6934
email: heritage@solihull.gov.uk
Paul Quinet, a former Belgian refugee
Paul Gustave Désiré Quinet (surname pronounced key-nay, or keeney by some) was born on 7th April 1899 in Koekelberg, Brussels. At the age of four and a half, he moved with his parents to Persia but returned to Brussels in 1906 to go to boarding school, where he remained until 1914.
His mother died in childbirth in Persia in 1908 and his father remained working there until returning to Brussels in 1913.
In 1914, after Paul proudly told his father that he had seen German troops in nearby woods, the family quickly gathered together belongings and left Brussels for the Belgian coast, taking the last train to leave before the entry of the German troops into the city.
Continue reading “Paul Quinet, a former Belgian refugee”Captain Robert Jacobs
Captain Robert Jacobs of the Royal Army Medical Corps died of wounds on 20th July 1918, aged 39, after an enemy bomb fell on his billet.
He was born in London in 1879 (his family moved to Ashburnham, 27 Whitefields Road, Solihull between 1901-1911) and he enlisted as a Private in the City of London Sanitary Company two days after the war began. He rose to the rank of Captain within 10 months, and served on the front continuously from his arrival in France on Christmas Day, 1914.
He was twice Mentioned in Despatches, and was congratulated on two occasions by Sir Douglas Haig.
By the time of his death, he was in command of no. 8 Sanitary Section. His knowledge of bacteriology and his inventive genius bought him distinction. He invented a method for the destruction of the ova of lice by heat, which was adopted by Allied armies, and he also invented a means of purifying bath water so that it could be re-used seven times. Amongst other inventions were a self-emptying incinerator and a process of rendering down waste fats to be turned into nitroglycerine for the manufacture of munitions.
Robert Jacobs’ father, James, a retired joiner, died in Spring 1911, so the War Office’s telegram advising of Robert’s death was sent to his mother, Ellen. She also received a photograph of his grave, marked with a wooden battlefield cross, which was replaced by a Portland Stone memorial in the 1920s/30s.
Captain Jacobs is commemorated on the RAMC in the Great War website.
He was the second of three children – his older brother Harry Jacobs (1875-1964) was a bank clerk with Lloyds Bank. The brothers also had a younger sister, Maud Jacobs (1880-1961) who kept house for her brother, Harry. The unmarried siblings remained at Ashburnham, Whitefields Road until at least 1939 and were living at 18 Elmdon Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham at the time of their respective deaths.
Robert Jacobs’ family gave his medals, and the next-of-kin memorial plaque and scroll they received to Solihull Central Library, as well as the photo of his grave and the telegram sent to his mother notifying his death.
If you have any more information about him, we’d be delighted to hear from you – please do let us know (email heritage@solihull.gov.uk or phone 0121 704 6977).
Tracey
Heritage & Local Studies Librarian
War memorials in the Borough of Solihull
As part of the commemorations marking 100 years since the outbreak of the First World War, we’re trying to get together a definitive list of individuals from places now within the Solihull borough (or in the former Solihull Rural District) who died as a result of war service.
Continue reading “War memorials in the Borough of Solihull”Tell us your memories of 1954, 1964 or 1974
2014 marks the 40th/50th/60th anniversary of Solihull becoming a Municipal Borough (1954), County Borough (1964) and Metropolitan Borough (1974).
We’d love to hear your memories of those times – for example, did you see Princess Margaret visit Solihull on Charter Day? Did you attend the teenage dance at the Civic Hall in 1964 to raise funds for the ‘Elevation Day’ clock? Do you remember the creation of the present-day Metropolitan Borough in 1974?
Please tell us what you remember of events then, or let us have your thoughts on how life in the Borough has changed since those times. There’s a memory sheet (PDF) attached below for you to fill in and email back to us at heritage@solihull.gov.uk
Tracey
Heritage & Local Studies Librarian
Solihull Life 