MALLEN, Solomon

Solomon Mallen was born in Brierley Hill, enlisted in Plymouth and in 1914 was living in Mansfield, Notts. He volunteered for the South Staffords and served in the 1st Battalion. In May 1915 they suffered severely at Festubert and Private Mallen probably arrived in a draft in the Summer to build up their numbers. The third of the 1915 attacks on the Western Front was at Loos. It was the British army’s biggest attack to date but the target for the Staffords was the well protected Quarries and Hohenzollern Redoubt. The Quarries were reached but the German defence was well-entrenched and not overcome. The high losses included Private Solomon Mallen who was killed in action on this day. He is commemorated on the Loos Memorial and on the Brierley Hill and Brierley Hill church Memorials.