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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.
Frank Packwood lived in Love Lane, Oldswinford, and attended Oldswinford C of E School. He also attended St. Mary's church, where he was a chorister and member of the Young Men's Bible Class. By 1914 he was working for Nash and Sons and living in Norton Road with his mother. He volunteered in September 1915 and joined the Gloucesters. He was sent to the 14th (Service) Battalion in the 35th Division. They crossed to France in January 1916 and went to the front line in Artois, the scene of the 1915 battles of Neuve Chapelle and Loos. It was a quiet sector at this time, which was helpful for men who had not been in battle as yet. Nevertheless, even in winter, there were raids and patrols to cope with, and shelling was a constant worry. He was under instruction in the trenches when a shell landed beside him. Private Frank Packwood died of wounds on the 3rd March and is buried in Le Touret Cemetery (III D 33) and commemorated on the Stourbridge, Oldswinford church and Oldswinford C of E School Memorials.
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Rectory Road, Old Swinford, DY8 2HA
