In Memory of those killed in 1919

The following articles by Edwina Rees tell the stories of men killed in 1919 and commemorated on the St Mary’s Church war memorial.

Captain Arnold Hardy-Smith – was the nephew of the first Lord Mayor of the City of Birmingham. He served with the elite Paget’s Horse in the Second Boer War and remained a Territorial on his return. He went to France with the 16th Royal Warwickshire Regiment on 21st November 1915. His fellow officer in ‘B’ Coy, Captain George Frederick Victor Heaven (see St Mary’s, 1916) was killed in action on 25th February 1916. This affected Arnold greatly and he returned to Britain suffering from neurasthenia. He remained in reserve until December 1917 when he was posted to Salonika. He died of Enteric B fever on 16th May 1919.

Air Mechanic 1st Class Arthur Perry RFC – survived the war but not the peace.  A mechanic in the motor cycle division of the RFC, he died on 1st March 1919 from the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 which was in its third peak phase in the spring of 1919. He had only just returned home from St Omer, France and most likely picked up the infection when passing through Blandford Camp in Dorset where he was demobilised.

 

 

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