THIS week we remember two Redditch servicemen who died during the First World War on the same day 100 years ago this week – May 21.
Edward William Tustin was born in 1889 in Tardebigge to Edward Thomas Tustin, a blacksmith, and his first wife Sarah Jane, and was one of their three children who survived into adulthood.
However he didn’t die at the front but back in Britain from what was then the deadly disease of measles.
The family lived at Broad Green near Tardebigge and in the 1911 census Edward was working as a poultryman.
He enlisted in Bromsgrove and joined the 16th Service Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment / 96th Battalion Training Reserve.
Crowded military camps were breeding grounds for diseases and Edward contracted measles which quickly developed into bronchial pneumonia.
These were pre-antibiotic days and Edward died on May 21, 1917. He is buried in Tardebigge Churchyard in the same grave as his grandparents Edward and Eliza Tustin.
As a member of the Victoria Lodge of the Bromsgrove Independent Order of Oddfellows, he also appears on their memorial in Bromsgrove High Street.
Robert William Reece was killed in the last great assault by the Worcestershire Regiment of the Arras campaign.
He was born in Stourbridge in 1890, the eldest of John and Mary Reece’s seven children, and the family lived at Lower Hayton.
The 1911 census has him working as a farm labourer but by 1915 he had married Ada Treadgold at Bromsgrove Registry Office and the couple were living at 40 Peakman Street, Redditch.
He joined the 2nd Battalion of the Worcestershires which, on May 19, 1917, was detailed to attack towards Fontaine-les-Croisilles, north west of Cambrai.
At 3.30am on May 20 the battalion deployed and at 5.15am, without any artillery bombardment, they rose up and attacked through the mist.
Their advance took the Germans by surprise and their front trenches were quickly captured as the British guns opened up on their second line.
However a dense thick fog then fell and, unable to see where they were going, the British attack foundered.
For the remainder of that day, all night and throughout May 21, the battlefield was the scene of repeated attacks and counterattacks.
The cost for the 2nd Worcs was horrendous – out of a battalion battle strength of 530 only 280 emerged unscathed – with 37 killed, 74 missing and 139 wounded.
Robert’s unit, ‘C Company’ had been trapped between the two German lines and although eventually pulled back to safety, he was killed in action.
He is buried at the Croisilles British Cemetery and is remembered on the St Luke’s war memorial in Redditch.
As a postscript, Ada Reece remarried and adopting the surname of Stanley. She died in 1967 aged 73.
With thanks to http://www.rememberthefallen.co.uk/ and Remembering Redditch’s Fallen Heroes.
