WEST, Alfred Charles

Alfred West was born in Devon but by 1914 he was living in Hall Street, Oldswinford, with his wife Augusta. He enlisted in the Queen’s Own Worcestershire Hussars, the cavalry equivalent of the Territorials, and became groom to Major F.S. Williams-Thomas. The Yeomanry sailed from Avonmouth on the 1st April 1915 for Egypt and were then sent to the Gallipoli peninsula for the second phase of the fighting against the Turks. They landed at Suvla Bay in mid-August after the infantry landings. The fighting was closely contested and there was no breakthrough to the ridge that dominated the peninsula. In November the Yeomanry returned to Egypt and were soon engaged in the defence of Egypt when the Turks switched their forces to Palestine. Trooper Alfred West, however, was sent to hospital in Egypt suffering from nephritis and blood poisoning. He was eventually invalided back to England to a hospital in Manchester. He appeared to be improving, but then suffered a relapse and died on the 29th March 1916. He was 27 years of age and was buried in Manchester Southern Cemetery (Q 400). He is commemorated on the Oldswinford church Memorial but not on the Stourbridge Memorial.