George H Baylis was born in 1897, the second eldest of the eight children of John and Eliza Baylis of 46 Beoley Road, Redditch. John was a fish hook maker and George is described as a jeweller (fish hooks) in the census of 1911.
He was part of ‘Kitchener’s Army’, a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and served with the 101st Field Ambulance unit then attached to the 33rd Division which, throughout April and May 1917 was involved in the bloody Battle of Arras in northern France.
A field ambulance was not a vehicle, but a body of men who would ferry the wounded back to field hospitals and dressing stations behind the frontline and George died doing just that on April 22. He is remembered on the St Stephen’s War Memorial.
<b>Dennis Mews</b> is described in his medical records as 5ft 5ins tall, 130lbs with blue eyes, light brown hair and with a heart tattoo on his right forearm.
Born in Alcester in 1886, he was one of 13 children of Henry and Sarah Mews.
By the 1891 census the family were in Ipsley and later moved to 41 Marsden Road, Redditch. Harry was a house painter, Sarah a needle paperer while Dennis worked as grinder in a cycle factory.
He married Ann Martha Plumber in 1908 and the couple had two children, Elsie and Dennis and lived at 5 Izods Yard.
It is likely he was conscripted and served as a Private with the 1st Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment which by April 1917 was in the line north of Epehy at Gouzeaucourt.
It is not known how he died, only that he was killed on April 24 and is remembered today on the St Stephen’s War Memorial.
Albert Wheeler had worked as a baker in Headless Cross before joining the 1/8th Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment as a Private.
Born in Much Marcle in Herefordshire, he was a marrried man of 25 when he too lost his life on April 24.
His unit had been ordered to attack ‘Gillemont Farm’ to the south east of Epehy. However, the assault went wrong.
Attacking at 3.45am, one company found itself checked by barbed wire and, as dawn broke, under sustained artillery fire. Two other companies reached their objectives but came under sustained machine gun and artillery fire. At 8.30am, the Germans counterattacked. The two companies suffered nearly 160 casualties.
Albert is remembered today on the St Luke’s War Memorial.
Feckenham
Edgar Thomas Hawthorne was born in 1896. His father Thomas was a farmer, his mother’s name was Elizabeth, and his younger brother was George Henry.
The family lived in Noah’s Green, Feckenham (along the Salt Way opposite Berrowhill Lane) but by 1911 they had moved to Feckenham High Street with Thomas working as a fitter’s labourer in a needle factory. Elizabeth and Edgar both worked in a needle factory, Elizabeth as a warehouse woman and Edgar as an errand boy.
Later the family moved to 6 Woodside Avenue, Bromsgrove Road, Webheath.
Edgar enlisted in the 12th Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment, before transferring or being transferred to the 12th Battalion Hampshire Regiment.
His unit was posted to Salonika in northern Greece to fight the Turks where disease was as great a danger as the enemy.
On April 24, the day he died, the Hampshires’ war diary recounts how his unit came under heavy artillery fire as it moved up to attack. Unable to reach their assembly points, units were deployed in the open before attacking. They gained some ground before being driven back by ferocious fire, suffering 261 casualties.
Edgar’s body was never found/identified and so he is remembered on the Doiran Memorial to the missing in Northern Greece.
Locally Edgar is remembered on the Feckenham village, Webheath Church and Headless Cross War Memorials.
With thanks to the Regimental Diaries of the Worcestershire Regiment, Remembering Redditch’s Fallen Heroes and in particular Richard Pearce.
