ONE hundred years ago this week the Battle of the Somme was reaching the beginning of its end, but it still claimed the deaths of three young soldiers from Redditch.
Harry Philip Spiers had lied about his age when he joined the army in November 1915, claiming he was 19 when in fact he was barely 17.
The eldest of five children born to Walter, who worked as a practical machine pointer in the fishing tackle industry and Mary Ellen Spiers, a housewife, he enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) and served with the 9th Battalion (Service).
His army record shows he tipped the scales at 130lbs and was 5ft 7ins tall and was of ‘fair physical development’.
He was sent to the front on August 15 and lasted less than two months, falling at the Battle of Le Transloy, part of the Somme campaign. He was reported missing on October 7 and later declared killed in action. He is remembered on the war memorial at St Stephen’s Church.
Francis Gifford Perkins also served in the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), in the 26th Battalion, formed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London and nicknamed the Bankers’ Battalion as it was formed mainly of bank clerks and accountants.
However Francis was born 100 miles away from the capital, in Astwood Bank in 1897. He too fell at Le Transloy, killed in action on October 10, 1916.
He is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial in France and on the war memorial at Astwood Bank.
Arthur William Harris served with the Royal Horse Artillery and the Royal Field Artillery. Born around 1880 he was one of three of the seven children born to William and Amelia Harris that survived into adulthood. According to the 1911 census the family lived at 210 Mount Pleasant, Redditch.
Artillery was the biggest killer in the First World War and a common tactic was for opposing artillery units to target each other in an attempt to knock them out.
Gunner Harris was killed in action on the Western Front on October 12, 1916.
