WILLETTS, Thomas

Thomas Willetts lived at 8 Bott Lane, Lye, with his widowed mother and was employed as an iron-plate worker before 1914. He was married to Lucy (formerly Connop and later Landen) of 47 Waste Bank, Lye, and enlisted in the Worcesters. He was sent to the 2nd Battalion on the Western Front and might have fought on the Somme in 1916. In 1917 the Worcesters were involved in the Battle of Arras and then the long Third Battle of Ypres. They were still in Flanders when the second German Spring offensive of 1918 struck their line in the valley of the Lys. They were forced to retreat as far as Hazebrouck where the line was stabilised. At some point Private Thomas Willetts was severely wounded and sent back to Britain for hospital treatment. He died on the 22nd May 1918 and is buried in Lye and Wollescote Cemetery (K 36) and commemorated on the Lye and Wollescote and Lye church Memorials.