The Coseley Servicemen Remembered

The servicemen from Coseley who died in the First World War, or later at home from their injuries, came from every corner of the Urban District. Altogether 378 men were killed in action or died from their injuries or illness in service, the last servicemen to die lost their lives in 1920 and 1921. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission included the date sof servicemen's deaths until 1921 for the First World War and 1947 fo rthe Second World War. When researching the Coseley servicemen it was found from census records that some were living in Coseley in 1891 and/0r 1901, but had moved by 1911. However, because of them living in the district at some point, myself and researcher Michael Harris, along with Coseley historian Beryl Wilkes who sadly died in 2017, decided that any man who had lived in Coseley at some point should be included among the fallen. It was notable that some of the men who lived on the edges of Coseley had moved only a short distance by the next census, but they were living just outside the district ten years later. For example, some of the servicemen who had lived in Bradley were in the Coseley part in 1901, but in the Bilston part in 1911 - the Coseley/Bilston border ran through the middle of Cross Street in the Hall Green area of Bradley.

Also, by studying the records of the servicemen's deaths, some of their addresses were given as "Parkfields, Wolverhampton", "Bradley, Bilston" and "Princes End, Tipton", even though their addresses were actually in Coseley Urban District. Because the Coseley Urban District included four villages of Sedgley Manor and consisted of the original village boundaries, the whole of Woodsetton was within the district and this included areas not thought of as Woodsetton in the last century or more, especially part of the Dudley Road as well as Arcal Street which are geographically in Sedgley. It is interesting to note that because part of Sedgley Beacon, including the famous Beacon Tower monument, were within the ancient village of Ettingshall, this part of the Beacon was within Coseley Urban District and the Tower was featured on the Coseley coat of arms. The Tower also appeared on Sedgley Urban District Council's badge, unlike Coseley they never had a coat of arms as this was optional.

Nearly all of the servicmen who died were privates, lance corporals, corporals, sergeants, seamen or petty officers, with only one airman, Aircraftman 3rd Class Algernon Moore, who died of natural causes in service. Only one of the 378 men was an officer, Second Lieutenant Mervyn Fellows from Hurst Hill. As well as Coseley's only VC, Private Thomas Barratt, three other servicemen were also awarded. They were Sergeant Thomas Pickerill MM from Hurst Hill, Sergeant Harold Pearce MM from Princes End and Private Edwin Langford DCM from Swan Village, Woodsetton. It is not known whether their awards were given after their deaths. Among the servicemen who lost their lives were three brothers from Woodsetton, John, George and William Perks, Private Reverend William H. Dimmock who was the minister of Bradley Methodist Church (which was in Coseley, not Bilston), who had also been the minister of Hurst Hill Methodist Church and had served as a regular private, Private Norman Binns, whose father had been a previous minister of Bradley Methodist Church and Private James Jeffreys Walker who was the son of the vicar of St. Chad's Church. Another soldier who died was Private John Shipton, son of the well-known "Mother Shipton" from the Gospel Oak pub on the eastern edge of the Urban District. Many Coseley families lost two sons in the war as so tragically happened and two families lost both a father and son - George T. Lloyd and his son, also named George T. Lloyd from Parkfields and Joseph Elwell and his son David from the Coseley part of Bradley all lost their lives in the conflict.

The Coseley servicemen are also remembered on church memorials around the former Urban District and a few who died of their injuries following November 1918 are buried in Coseley and Sedgley. Thomas Barratt VC is also commemorated at Christ Church in Coseley and the church has its own memorial in the grounds. St. Mary's in Hurst Hill, Hurst Hill Methodist church and Upper Ettingshall (Sodom) Methodist Church also have their own memorials to First World War servicemen, as well as Bradley Methodist Church. The former Mount Tabor Methodist Church in Swan Village had its own memorial, but this was moved in recent years to the junction of Sedgley Road and Parkes Hall Road due to the church being closed for a long period. A memorial from a former Methodist chapel in Ladymoor is now at The Black Country Living Museum.

A few servicemen remembered on church memorials around Coseley do not appear to have lived in the district, or research hasn't been able to trace them to Coseley. St. Mary's memorial included Private Thomas Screen from Bath Street in Sedgley which, although in Sedgley Urban District was and still is within St. Mary's Parish. The St. Mary's, Hurst Hill Methodist, Upper Ettingshall Methodist and Christ Church memorials also included servicemen from Wolverhampton, Bilston and one from Darlaston. It is not known if they might have moved to Coseley after the 1911 census, records of their deaths do not mention Coseley and it is possible they had family members in the district who had their named added, as this often happened with war memorials. There is also a serviceman from Bradley (the Bilston part) and two soldiers from Tipton who are buried in Coseley churchyards. This takes the total of servicemen from, commemorated in or buried in Coseley to 389.