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 (centre) with two of his brothers.
Continue reading “15th June 1918”
Gunner Ralph George Baker, 309 Siege Battery, Honourable Artillery Company, died of pneumonia on 18th May 1918 in a German Hospital as a Prisoner of War. He was born in Handsworth on 12th July 1898, and was the second of the three sons of Charles (a jeweller) and Amelia (known as Minne) (née Deakin).
Acting 2nd Corporal James William Alfred Borley died of wounds on 15th May 1918 at the 17th Casualty Clearing Station, whilst serving with the Railway Operating Division of the Royal Engineers. He was 25 years old, and had been born in Hampton-in-Arden in 1892.
Private Gilbert Scott Osborne died of wounds on 4th May 1918 whilst serving with the 1st Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment. Born in Handsworth in 1888, he attended Solihull School, becoming a die sinker with a silversmith on leaving.
23-year-old Second Lieutenant Arthur George Ansell, 1st Field Survey Company, Royal Engineers, died of gas poisoning in No. 8 Red Cross Hospital, Boulogne, France on 25th April 1918, after being gassed at Passchendaele. He was the eldest of the three children of parents Arthur John (an agent for the Prudential Assurance Company at Solihull) and Emma (née Lynes) who had married in Notting Hill in 1893. Arthur John Ansell was a widower – his first wife, Kate Purvey (1867-1892) had died in childbirth in 1892, after just one year of marriage.
Two local men lost their lives on 16th April 1918 whilst on active service – Private Jim Birch, 5th Battalion, Tank Corps, and Lance Corporal Harry Moseley, 1st Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
Private Richard Bradburn, 1st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment, was killed in action on 15th April 1918. He was the first of two brothers to be killed, as his younger brother, Harry Matthew Bradburn, died on 23rd October 1918.
Four local men lost their lives on 14th April 1918 whilst on active service. Private George Bellamy, Labour Corps; Gunner Francis Thomas East, 83rd Battery, 11th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, Lance Corporal Walter Mucklow, 4th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment and Private John Tonks, 2nd/7th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
Two local men died on active service on 12th April 1918 – 20-year-old Private James Prentice, 1st Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment and 19-year-old Lance Bombardier Harvey Walter Watts, 378th Battery, 169th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery.
