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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 Stevens was the son of Levi and Mary Stevens and attended Cradley C of E school. He lived at 29 Mill Street, Cradley, with his wife and four children. He volunteered in December 1914 for the Worcesters and joined the 9th (Service) Battalion. After extensive training they were sent out to Gallipoli in the relief force of August 1915. The landings were straightforward but subsequent advances were strongly opposed by the Turks, while conditions in terms of terrain and temperature were very difficult. The isolation of the campaign and the effects of disease were serious and Private James Stevens was evacuated to the base camp at Alexandria suffering from dysentery. He died on the 30th October and was buried in Chatby Military Cemetery at Alexandria (B 12 5). He is commemorated on the Cradley, Halesowen and Cradley C of E Sschool Memorials.
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Cradley, Dudley, West Midlands, England
