WOOLDRIDGE, Matthew

Matthew Wooldridge was born in Lye and volunteered for the Worcesters. He joined the 9th (Service) Battalion which was sent out to Gallipoli in August 1915. The original landings had turned into a stalemate which the new landings failed to break. After the evacuation of the peninsula in January 1916 the Worcesters moved on to Mesopotamia to continue the war with the Turks. This was an equally difficult campaign up the Tigris in 1916 in order to relieve the British forces besieged in Kut. The Worcesters advanced quickly but were held up by Turkish defenders just short of Kut. A night attack at Sanniyat on the 6th April broke into the Turkish trenches and Kut fell almost immediately. Private Matthew Wooldridge was killed on the 7th April during the fighting and is commemorated on the Basra, Lye and Wollescote and Lye church Memorials.