MALPASS, John

John Malpass was born in Dudley and moved to Brierley Hill. He volunteered for the Worcester Territorials and joined the 2/8th Battalion. They went to the Western Front in the Summer of1916 and fought on the Somme and in 1917 in the Third Battle of Ypres on the Steenbeek and at Wieltje. In September they moved to the quieter Arras sector, where they were in the front line on Infantry Hill facing the complex trenches of the Hindenburg Line. Raids had taken the place of battles and on the 15th November the Worcesters carried out a well organised night raid. Two men reconnoitred no-man’s land on the day before and left wire trails to help the raiders find their way. The men set off at 7.20 p.m. under a brief artillery barrage, wrecked the section of enemy trenches, and retired with a prisoner. Four men were killed by shells as they returned. One of these was Private John Malpass who is buried in Sunken Road Cemetery, Fampoux (I C 11) and commemorated on the Brierley Hill and Brierley Hill church Memorials.