BRINDLEY, Colin John

Colin Brindley was the oldest son of Mr and Mrs J. H. Brindley of 72 Collis Street, Amblecote and came from a glassmaking family. He enlisted in the Warwicks Territorials and joined the 2/6th Battalion in the 61st (2nd South Midland) Division. They went to the Western Front in 1916 and suffered seriously at Fromelles. He was wounded in the shoulder and was sent back to England for hospital treatment. He returned to the front line in 1917 for the follow-up to the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line. The Warwicks were near St Quentin when the first German Spring offensive struck on the 21st March 1918. They conducted a fighting retreat as far back as the gates of Amiens and the exhausted survivors were sent to a quiet part of the line near Béthune. They were then in the path of the second German offensive on the Lys which opened on the 9th April and forced the British to retreat. Private Colin Brindley was seriously wounded. At some point and died of wounds on the 10th April at the Military Hospital in Rouen. He was 21 years of age and is buried in St. Sever Cemetery Extension (P IX J12 B), and commemorated on the Amblecote and Amblecote church Memorials,