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War
Memorials Elsewhere, - Walsall (Staffs) |
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The War Memorial for Walsall (Staffs)
Photo : Berenice
Baynham (BereniceUK)
The First World War Memorial for Walsall is located in front of St. Matthew's Church, Church Hill, Walsall. The church looks down onto Walsall's High Street. The Memorial Cross is situated beside some steps which lead from Church Hill up to St. Matthew's Church.
The names of 139 men who fell are commemorated on new wall plaques situated behind the memorial. One Officer who served with the Yorkshire Regiment is commemorated on the memorial.
2nd Lieutenant William Alfred Thacker. 7th Battalion
Yorkshire Regiment, formerly 5th Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment. Only
son of Ernest and Gertrude Emily Thacker, of "Beechcroft", Sandwell
St., Walsall, Staffs. A student at Cambridge. Gazetted Nov.,1916. Killed 12
May 1917. Aged 19.
Commemorated on Bay 5, ARRAS MEMORIAL.
From Robert Coulson's "Biographies of Yorkshire Regiment Officers";-
William Thacker was a Staffordshire man and saw service in the
early stages of the war with the 5th battalion of the South Staffordshire
Regiment.
He fought with the battalion on the Somme seeing action at Gommecourt on July
1st 1916 and was then commissioned in November of that year.
2 nd Lt Thacker joined the 7th Yorkshires in mid April 1917 at Fosseux during
the Battle of Arras.
On the night of May 11th the battalion assembled in Clover and Cushion trenches
and at 6.30am the following day along with the 7th East Yorkshires attacked
the German position known as Cupid Trench.
2nd Lt William Alfred Thacker was killed in this action during the Battle
of Arras on May 12th 1917 aged just 19.
His body never found and he is remembered today on the Arras Memorial at the
Faubourg D’Amiens Cemetery to the North West of Arras town centre.
Lieutenant Thacker's Name on the War Memorial for Walsall
Photo : Berenice
Baynham (BereniceUK)
St.
Matthew's Church, Walsall - the War Memorial can just be made out to the right
of the Church Steps.
Photo © Copyright Gordon
Griffiths and licensed for reuse under this Creative
Commons Licence.
A view from Google
Earth showing the Memorial to the right of the steps leading to St. Matthew's
Church
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