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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.
Richard Bateman was the son of Richard and Hannah Bateman of 36 Swan Street, Dudley. He volunteered for the Worcesters and went to the 4th Battalion. They were ordered to the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force which sailed to attack Turkey In March 1915. They landed on the Gallipoli peninsula on the 25th April but in six months of struggle failed to reaching the commanding heights. The Worcesters fought four major battles at the village of Krithia and suffered heavy losses. After August the Worcesters moved to Suvla but the terrain forced both sides into trench warfare in the gullies and woods above the bay. Turkish snipers were very active and this possibly explains the death of Private Richard Bateman on the 23rd September. He was 20 years of age and is buried in Azmak, Suvla, Cemetery (I B 6) and commemorated on the Dudley Memorial.
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Town Hall, Priory Street, Dudley
