SKIDMORE, Bert

Bert Skidmore came from Lye and volunteered for the Worcester Territorials. He was sent to the 1/8th Battalion which had been in France and Flanders since 1915. They had been through the long, gruelling battles of the Somme in 1916, Third Ypres in 1917 and the retreats of Spring 1918. In August 1918, however, the Battalion started on the Advance to Victory which culminated in the total success of the battle of Beaurevoir in November. Private Bert Skidmore, however, had been made prisoner some time during the year. It is most likely that this happened in the long retreat of March 1918 from St. Quentin across the old Somme battlefield. He died in a German prisoner of war camp at Cologne on the 27th October and is buried in Cologne Southern Cemetery (V E 5). He is commemorated on the Lye and Wollescote and Lye church Memorials.