IN JULY 100 years ago this week preparations were well under way for what would become the Third Battle of Ypres on the Western Front in Flanders.
The campaign was to prove a bloody one for the British Army and casualties, including soldiers from Redditch, were to run into the tens of thousands.
However even before the main assault started on July 31, soldiers were still in the frontline, carrying out raiding parties, scouting missions and always under the constant bombardment of enemy artillery.
Cecil Haden and Richard Ralph were two such soldiers.
Cecil, who was born in 1898, was one of just four of the 12 children born to Frederick and Mary Ann Haden who survived childhood.
His father worked as a telephone wireman for the National Telephone Company and the family lived at 49 Arrow Road, which still stands today.
He joined the 8th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment at Worcester.
His unit, part of the 57th Brigade, had seen action throughout the war and it’s likely that Cecil would have been involved in the fighting of The Battle of Messines in 1917.
He was killed in action on July 23 and is commemorated on the Menin Gate memorial in Ypres and remembered on the St George’s war memorial in Redditch.
Richard was born around 1895 and by the time of the 1911 census both he and his brother were recorded as working in the cycle industry.
He joined the 11th Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and like Cecil, his unit would have been involved in the Battle of Messines.
He was killed in action on July 25, 1917 and is remembered to today on the St Lukes war memorial (The Bridge Church) at Headless Cross.
With thanks to the book Remembering Redditch’s Fallen Heroes and Jillian Coombes.
