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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.
Harry Perks was the son of David and Lavinia Perks of Lye and worked originally as a plate layer on the Great Western Railway. By the time of the Great War he was married with two children and living at 79 High Street, Wollaston, where they had a drapery and ladies outfitting business. He enlisted early in 1917 and joined the 4th Battalion of the Worcesters. His final leave before being sent abroad had been as recent as October. He arrived in the front line just before the battle of Cambrai which opened on the 20th November. The Worcesters followed up the original breakthrough but had to face a powerful German counter attack. Among the many casualties was Private Harry Perks who was killed in action on the 22 November. He was 40 years of age and is buried in Canadian Cemetery No. 2, Neuville St. Vaast (2 F 7). He is commemorated on the Lye and Wollescote, Stourbridge and Wollaston church Memorials.
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Belfry Drive, Dudley, DY8 3SE
