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“If you think, have a kindly thought, If you speak, speak generously, Of those who as heroes fought And died to keep you free”
Set up by the Black Country Society. Our aim is to highlight local men who died in the Great War and how they have been commemorated on war memorials. Its scope covers the whole of the present Dudley Municipal Borough and therefore includes the places which have come within its bounds since 1914.
There are over fifty memorials and the number of names exceeds three thousand. Research on the names has been extensive but inevitably errors and omissions occur. We would like to hear about them concentrated on life and work before 1914, involvement in military campaigns and where each man is buried or commemorated.
Cyril Beese was the son of Mr T. Beese of Dudley and volunteered for the Worcestershire Territorials. He served in the 1/7th Battalion which went to the Western Front in April 1915 and was stationed in Artois. They had been closely involved in the 1916 Battle of the Somme, notably at Ovillers and Thiepval, and in the Spring of 1917 were ordered to follow up the retreat of the German army towards the Hindenburg Line. On the 25th April they helped the 1/8th in their remarkable capture of the 'Mound' at Templeux-Guerard. In May they were transferred to the Arras area and occupied the line near Croisilles and close to the Hindenburg Line. It was glorious weather and the enemy were quiet. Nevertheless, there were occasional casualties and Lance Corporal Cyril Beese was killed in action on the 3rd June. He is buried in Bancourt British Cemetery (I E 7) and commemorated on the Dudley Memorial.
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Town Hall, Priory Street, Dudley
