“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.
Joseph Fereday was the son of George and Alice Fereday of 29 Church Street, Pensnett. His wife was Beatrice and they had two children. He worked as a wages clerk at Birmingham gas-works and enlisted in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in June 1916. He served in the 1st Battalion and went to the Western Front on the 4th December. The major attack of Spring 1917 was at Arras and was aimed at the new German defences of the Hindenburg Line. The opening day of the battle of the Scarpe was the 9th April and large gains were made by the Warwicks in the direction of the village of Fampoux. However, the cost was high in casualties. Private Joseph Fereday was seriously wounded and taken to a Casualty Clearing Station, where he died of wounds on the 18th April. He was 30 years of age and is buried in Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension (II B 14) and commemorated on the Pensnett Memorial.
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