GUEST, Horace Edgar

Horace Guest was married to Emily and lived with their two sons at New Buildings, King William Street, Amblecote. He was a coal merchant by trade and was a well-known figure at the Workmen’s Club and Stourbridge Rifle Club. He also had a long service as a Staffordshire Volunteer and a Territorial soldier in the Royal Field Artillery. He was a sergeant in the National Reserve in 1914 and joined the 2/7th Worcester Territorials in September 1914. He saw active service when the Worcesters were fighting on the Somme but suffered from septic poisoning on two occasions and invalided home. He returned to the Western Front in December 1917 and the 2/8th, as they had become, awaited the great German offensives of March on the Somme and of April on the Lys. Heavy losses were taken as the Worcesters retreated and Sergeant Horace Guest was killed by shell-fire on the 18th April when carrying rations to the front line trenches. He was 41 years of age and is buried in Berguette Churchyard (A 3) near Aire-sur-la-Lys and commemorated on the Amblecote and Amblecote Institute Memorials. Memorial Notice ‘from ‘his sorrowing wife and children’ May 1918 As true a heart as ever breathed Has passed away from earth His memory dwells within our hearts Of those who knew his worth.