THIS week we remember two Redditch soldiers who died 100 years ago in February.
Arthur Lee, was killed on February 17, 1917 serving his country against the Turkish army in what is now modern day Iraq but which was then called Mesopotamia.
He wasn’t a Redditch man, having been born in Good Easter near Chelmsford, but it’s possible his employment as a railway engine driver brought him to the town.
He was born around 1884, the second of William and Hester Lee’s four sons, and in 1891 the family were recorded as living in Essex.
However Arthur enlisted in Redditch and was attached to the 9th Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment, which was part of the force trying to capture the strategically important town of Kut.
It’s not known how Arthur died, but it’s possible it was of wounds received in what is described in the regimental diaries as a ‘sharp little engagement’ two days before, on February 15.
The 9th had been fighting its way up the Hai Canal until it reached the southern banks of the River Tigris. The remnants of the Turkish forces south of the river were hemmed in at the Dahra Bend where, ‘after a gallant resistance’ says the diaries, some 2,000 surrendered.
Arthur Lee is remembered on the war memorial at St Lukes Church, now The Bridge, on Evesham Road, Headless Cross.
HARRY Mousley died 100 years ago this week in conditions which for many sum up the horror of the First World War.
He was serving with the 8th Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment in the Somme area of the Western Front, the scene of so much devastation the year before.
The 8th had been in and out of the line but on February 21 Harry’s unit was once again moved to the front.
The cold weather had broken a few days before and the soldiers struggled through thick mud to get to there.
Whole trenches had collapsed, water flooding dugouts while men stuck in the mud had to be helped out.
Shelling had also increased and this, together with the lack of protection caused by the wrecked trenches, resulted in many deaths, including that of Harry Mousley, one of 16 killed and 33 wounded in what was a deadly four day spell for the 8th.
Harry had been born in 1892, the fifth child of Ellen and James Mousley. His father, who worked at Redditch gas works, died when he was nine.
The family lived at addresses in Britten Street, off Bromsgrove Road, Izods Yard, now gone, and Mount Pleasant.
In the census of 1911, he was recorded as a jappaner for a fish hook company – someone who put lacquer on a product.
He was killed on February 23, 1917, and is remembered on the Assevillers New British Cemetery near Peronne, and on the St Lukes War Memorial at The Bridge on Evesham Road, Headless Cross.
With thanks to Remembering Redditch’s Fallen Heroes and the War Diaries of the Worcestershire Regiment.
