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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.
Ernest Bowater was born and lived in Dudley. He enlisted in the Worcesters and went to the 1st Battalion. They were deeply involved in the 1916 Battle of the Somme and early in 1917 followed up the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line. They then moved to Flanders for the opening attack of the Third Battle of Ypres and continued during August and most of September shared in the slow advance. By November Passchendaele had been captured and the Wprcesters moved again to the front line. It was a time of raids and artillery barrage with a few casualties. Private Ernest Bowater was killed in action on the 21st November 1917 and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot, Dudley and St. James' church Memorials.
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Town Hall, Priory Street, Dudley
