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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.
James Payton was born in Dudley and was married to Bertha of 27 Pitfield Street, Kates Hill. He was a volunteer and joined the 9th (Service) Battalion of the Worcesters. After training in England they were sent out to Gallipoli as reinforcements to break the stalemate against the Turkish forces on the peninsula. They went ashore on the island of Mudros before experiencing a few days in the front line at Cape Helles. They returned to Mudros on the 29th July where Private Payton died on the 2nd August. He was 36 years of age and is buried in East Mudros Cemetery (II C 43). He is commemorated on the Dudley and St. James church Memorials.
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Town Hall, Priory Street, Dudley
