SHOTTON, Wilfred MM

Wilfred Shotton was the only son of John and Mary Ann Shotton of Box Hill, Amblecote and was employed at Messrs Jones and Attwood in Amblecote before hostilities. He enlisted in November 1916 and went to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He served in the 13th Battalion which went to the Western Front in 1916, fighting on the Somme, and in 1917 to Flaanders in the Third Battle of Ypres. In March 1918 they were faced with the first German Spring offensive when he was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field during some close combat. With the enemy about to capture their position, he put three guns out of action, took fifteen prisoners and killed several enemy troops. He was nearly killed himself when a German bullet hit his cigarette case. However, on the 22nd April Lance Corporal Wilfred Shotton was killed in action and is commemorated on the Pozières and Amblecote Memorials.