Private Thomas Henry Parkes, from Solihull and Hockley Heath, died of wounds on 24th October 1915 at Gallipoli, serving with the 8th Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment). He was the youngest of the seven surviving children (out of 12 born) of parents William Parkes, a bricklayer, and his wife Rhoda (née Hayes) who had married at St Alphege Church, Solihull on 27th July 1874.
5th October 1915
Frank Baulcombe was born in Kenilworth on 18th February 1891, the fourth child and eldest son of the ten children born to parents Frederick (an insurance agent, previously a confectioner and baker) born in Eastbourne, Sussex and Selina (née Clarke), born at Moreton Bagot, Warwickshire. The couple had married at Claverdon on 5th January 1886. Frederick was a widower – he had married his first wife, Mary Page, on 31st January 1882 in Kenilworth and their only child, Marian Bertha Baulcombe, was born in Leamington at the end of the year. Mary died in 1884, aged 28.
Frank, a gardener at Umberslade before the war, was killed in action at Neuve Chappelle on 5th October 1915, whilst serving as a Private with the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. He was 24 years old.
19th June 1915
25-year-old regular soldier, Corporal Adam Edgar, died on 19th June 1915 serving with the 2nd Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment. On the same day, Private William Albert Birch was killed in action serving with the 4th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment.
16th June 1915
19-year-old Frank Ferris died on 16th June 1915 whilst serving as a Private with the Wiltshire Regiment. Born in Hockley Heath, he was baptised at St Thomas’s Church, Nuthurst Lane, Hockley Heath, although the parish register entry is a little confusing.
He is recorded in the parish register (available on the Ancestry website free of charge from library computers) as being baptised on the 18 Nov 1894 [sic], aged 5 months. His siblings George (aged 6), Charles Henry (3 years 11 months), Esther (2) and John (aged 9) were all baptised on the same day as Frank. However, there is a registration entry on the General Register Office (GRO) indexes for Frank’s birth in Mar qtr 1896 so the baptism entry may be an error – the entries were all added in in 1898 with a note saying they had been omitted from the register at the time.
14th May 1915
John Augustus Lloyd was born at Hockley Heath on 1st June 1887 and is buried at Umberslade Baptist Church, having died of sickness on 14th May 1915 whilst serving as a Private with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.
Solihull Life 