MAIDEN, Harry

Harry Maiden was born in Dudley and was living in Wordsley when he volunteered for the South Staffords. He went to the 7th (Service) Battalion which was sent out to Gallipoli in mid-1915 to break the early stalemate on the peninsula. The conditions were fearful and in December the Staffords were evacuated. They returned as far as Marseilles and were sent to the Western Front, They joined the 1916 Battle of the Somme by going into the front line near Thiepval on the 4th September. Severe enemy shelling of the trenches followed and Private Harry Maiden was one of those killed by shell fire on the 6th. He is commemorated on the Thiepval and Wordsley Memorials.