CHANCE, Albert H

Albert Chance lived at Worcester Street, Stourbridge, and attended Oldswinford C of E school. After leaving school he worked for the Great Western Railway in its Claims Department at Birmingham. He enlisted in June 1915 as a volunteer in the Warwickshire Regiment and was promoted Corporal, Sergeant and Quarter Master Sergeant. He was then commissioned into the 2/7th Battalion on the 30th May 1917. This battalion was in the 61st Division which fought at Third Ypres in 1917 and by early 1918 was stationed on the front line near St. Quentin. Here they faced the first great German Spring offensive which opened on the 21st March. The Warwicks were greatly outnumbered and were forced to make a fighting withdrawal. Casualties were very heavy and among them was Lieutenant Albert Chance who was killed in action on the 22nd March. He was 26 years of age and is commemorated on the Pozières, Stourbridge, St. Thomas’s church and Oldswinford C of E School Memorials.