HILL, Athel

Athel Hill attended Wollescote school and was married and living in Cross Street, Wollescote, before 1914. He volunteered for the Worcesters and joined the 3rd Battalion. They fought in the Ploegsteert area in 1915 and in the battles of Messines in the Spring of 1916. In the third stage of the Battle of the Somme the battalion was engaged in attacks on the powerful defences of the Leipzig Redoubt near the village of Thiepval. A major attack on the 3rd September resulted in heavy loss, including the battalion commander and two company commanders. Among the others who died was Corporal Athel Hill who was killed by a shell and is commemorated on the Thiepval, Lye and Wollescote, Lye church and Wollescote school Memorials.