WELCH, Albert

Albert Welch was born at Wollaston in 1895 and his parents were Benjamin and Eliza Welch. He attended Wollaston C of E School from 1902 to 1908 and was living at 32 High Street, Wollaston, by the time of the Great War. He enlisted in the Territorials at Kidderminster, probably before the war, and joined the 1/7th Battalion of the Worcesters. They went overseas at the end of March 1915, fought in the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and in the Spring of 1917 were engaged in the advance to the Hindenburg Line. On April 25th they fought in a particularly fierce action to take Gillemont Farm and, after a month of refitting, they came back into the trenches within sight of the Hindenburg Line near Morchies on the road to Cambrai. Private Albert Welch was seriously wounded in the left thigh at some point and was taken to the Military Hospital at Rouen. Here his leg was amputated but he died on the 7th June and is buried in St. Sever Cemetery Extension (P2 K 9B). He was 22 years of age and is commemorated on the Stourbridge and Wollaston Memorials.