GUEST, Horace Edgar

Horace Guest was born in Wordsley and lived with his wife Gertrude and their sons, Donald and Leonard, at New Buildings, King William Street, Amblecote. He was a coal merchant and had long been associated with the army, a genuine ‘old soldier’. He joined the Staffordshire Volunteers in 1896, won prizes for shooting and was promoted to Sergeant in 1899. He joined the Territorials on their formation in 1908 and after the outbreak of war he became Transport Sergeant for the 2/7th Worcester Territorials. The battalion went to the Western Front in 1916 and saw front line military service on the Somme. In 1917 they followed up the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, fought at Langemarck in the Third Battle of Ypres and defended against the German counter-attack at Cambrai. He was invalided home twice with septic poisoning and returned to the front in December 1917. In March 1918 came the German Spring offensives and the Worcesters were at St. Quentin under the full force of the first attack. It was a totally exhausted battalion that was forced back to Amiens by the middle of April. On the 18th April Sergeant Horace Guest was killed when carrying rations to the front line. He died immediately from a shell-burst close to him. He was 41 years of age and is buried in Berguette churchyard (A 8).commemorated on the Amblecote and Wordsley Memorials.