Getting closer to World War One in Birmingham

Lance Corporal William Leslie Arnold,
Died of war wounds on 16/08/1916
Australian Infantry, A.I.F. 9th Battlion

Lance Corporal William Leslie Arnold was wounded in action during the Somme on the 22 July 1916. He suffered a gunshot wound to the right ankle and thigh.  On the 14th August he was transferred to Birmingham and died two days later.  He is buried at the Lodge Hill Cemetery Birmingham, along with 53 other Australians who died in the military hospitals around Birmingham.  His younger brother Francis Benjamin Arnold, aged 20, was shot in the face near the same village of Pozieres the day after William died.  He reached a major hospital in Etaples within a few days, but died from his wounds in France on the 25 August 1916.

Surviving war

George Rice in 2003

Strange in a world of uncertainty, war and conflict, to look back 100 years to the Battle of the Somme, halfway through 'the war to end all wars'. Since 1914 British soldiers have never not been involved in a conflict or war.

Personally I have only met one World War One Veteran, and was lucky to be involved in interviewing him 12 years ago.