LEE, Bert (Herbert)

Bert Lee was born in Wollaston in June 1899 and his parents were Thomas, an edge tool maker, and Eliza Ann. By 1914 they were living at 38 Enville Street, Stourbridge. He attended Wollaston School from 1908 to 1913 and left to become a moulder. He was apprenticed to Messrs. Baker of Hagley Road and had also worked in the Rowley granite quarry. An older brother, Fred, was a driver in the Army Service Corps. Bert Lee enlisted in August 1917 and went to France on the 2nd April 1918 with the 6th Battalion of the West Surreys in 12th Division. He joined a battalion in need of reinforcement after it had suffered heavily in the first German Spring offensive. After re-training they moved to the Somme for the Advance to Victory and from August fought across the old 1916 battlefield. On 18th September they were engaged in a frontal attack on the German lines at Epehy. Resistance was strong but the attack was successful. Lance Corporal Herbert Lee, however, was wounded in the attack and died of wounds on 22nd September. He was 19 years of age and is buried at Doingt Communal Cemetery (I B 45) near Peronne and commemorated on the Stourbridge and Wollaston Memorials. His brother, Frederick, died six weeks later.