LAMB, Alfred J

Alfred Lamb of Palace Row, Oldswinford, was born on 17th March 1891 and was the eldest son of Mr and Mrs T. Lamb, later of 46 Heath Lane. He attended Oldswinford C of E School and at the age of nine moved to Old Swinford Hospital. When he left, he was apprenticed to Alfred Ward, blacksmith, of Foster Street and then worked for William Lamb of Corser Street as a frost cog maker. He was an early volunteer who enlisted in November 1914 for the Worcesters and was sent to the 3rd Battalion. He was injured by shrapnel in the leg early in 1915 at Ypres and recuperated in a military hospital at Boulogne. Then he was sent to Gallipoli to join the 4th Battalion who had landed on the 25th April 1915. They needed reinforcements, especially in view of the failure of the second attempt to break through the Turkish lines on the 6th August. The attacks were unsuccessful and the fighting was reduced to trench warfare in a very inhospitable region of ravines and woods and in extremes of climate. It was on the 26th September that Private Alfred Lamb was killed in action, probably by shell-fire or sniping. He was 24 years of age and is buried in Azmak Cemetery, Suvla (1 B 12) and commemorated on the Stourbridge, Oldswinford church, Oldswinford school and Old Swinford Hospital Memorials and on his parents' grave in St. Mary's church cemetery.