DEAN, Robert Warren

Robert Dean was the son of John and Annie Dean of Collis Street, Amblecote. He worked in the offices of Harrison-Pearson, the brick makers, was secretary of the Enville cricket club and a member of the Amblecote Institute. He was an early volunteer (Number 313) enlisting in Birmingham for the Warwicks and joining the 16th Battalion (3rd Birmingham Pals) Battalion. He was in B Company, Platoon 7, and was soon promoted. 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 machine guns were well sited and B Company suffered serious losses. The attack failed and Sergeant Robert Dean was killed in action. He was 27 years of age and is commemorated on the Thiepval, Amblecote and Amblecote Institute Memorials. His brother, Charles, was in the same battalion and died of wounds sustained in the same attack.