DEAN, Charles Conrad

Private Charles Dean was born in Brierley Hill and was the son of John and Annie Dean of Collis Street, Amblecote. He was in the choir of Amblecote church, singing as a baritone soloist, and he worked for the GWR at their Brettell Lane Goods Office. In 1914 he was an early volunteer (Number 1769) enlisting in Birmingham for the Warwicks. He joined the 16th Battalion (3rd Birmingham Pals) Battalion and after training at Sutton Coldfield and Salisbury Plain they went to the Western Front in November 1915. It was a miserable winter in the trenches of the Somme front line. It was quiet but the weather was appalling. They joined the battle of the Somme in mid July at High Wood and suffered heavily. They came back into the front line for another attack, this time on Falfemont farm on the 2nd September. The German nachine guns were well sited and the attack failed. The casualties included Private Charles Dean who was seriously wounded and taken to 21 Casualty Clearing Station where he died on the 15th September. He was 20 years of age and is buried in La Neuville British Cemetery at Corbie and commemorated on the Amblecote and Amblecote church Memorials. His brother, Robert, was in the same attack and killed in action on the first day of the attack.