ONE hundred years ago this week the initial stages of what was to become the Third Battle of Ypres were taking place on the Western Front.
Thousands were to die and thousands more were wounded.
Here we tell of two local soldiers who died not in action but from the agonising wounds they received.
Harry Bradshaw was born in 1891 to Reuben and Emily Bradshaw, one of the couple’s six children.
The family lived at 25 Melen Street near Redditch town centre and by the 1911 census Harry was working as a needle wrapper.
He married Annie Styler at Redditch Baptist Church in Easemore Road and the couple lived at various addresses including The Nook, Other Road and Beoley Road.
Harry joined the 10th Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and had been promoted to Lance Corporal when on June 7 his unit played a key role in the Battle of Messines near Ypres.
By Western Front standards the attack was a huge success but Harry was wounded as his unit, part of 19th Division, took part.
He died of his injuries on June 10 and is remembered today on the St Stephen’s war memorial.
Harry Farmer was born in Stock Green in 1887, his father, William, worked for the district council, and his mother’s name was Mary Ann.
One of seven children, by the 1911 census Harry was working as a carpenter and living in Bradley Green.
On January 31, 1914 he married Esther Mary Hawkes and moved to Sparkhill in Birmingham where they had one child.
He enlisted under the Lord Derby scheme which meant he would have enlisted prior to December 15, 1915 on the understanding he could return to work and await his call up, which came in early 1916.
He served with the 14th Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment, a pioneer unit skilled in soldiering yet also able to help the Royal Engineers.
On February 17 1917, his ‘C’ Company were attached to the 2nd Battalion, Royal Marine Light Infantry and took part in an attack to the east of Miraumont where it is recorded Harry was “badly wounded in the hand while in the trenches.”
Local historian Richard Pearce says: “It must have been a very bad wound as he eventually arrived back in the UK to the Central Hospital, Aberdeen.
“Unfortunately it was in hospital where Harry contracted pneumonia of which he died on June 12, 1917.”
He is buried in the grounds of St John The Baptist Church in Feckenham and is remembered on its war memorial.
With thanks to Remembering Redditch’s Fallen Heroes; Richard Pearce; and The Plugstreet Archaeological Project.
