Archibald “Archie” Needham

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Archibald Needham, football, Royal Air Force, Royal Flying Corps, Sheffield, Sussex, Wednesfield Road, Wolverhampton Wanderers FC

The son of William Henry and Sarah Needham, Archie was born in Sheffield on 24 May 1881. He became a professional footballer, playing for Sheffield United, Crystal Palace, and Glossop North End, before joining Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1910. In 1911, he was boarding in the home of William Griffiths at 78 Wednesfield Road, Wolverhampton. In 1911, he moved to play for Brighton & Hove Albion.

During the war, Archie served with the Royal Flying Corps, later the Royal Air Force (number 6666). He married Ethel Margaret Bacon in Horsham, Sussex, on 5 December 1915. Archie survived the war.

By 1939, they were still living in Horsham, and Archie had become a textile engineer, but was retired by that date. Archive died on 29 October 1950, when his address was 17 Hangleton Road, Hove, Sussex. The value of his effects was £13115 8s. 8d.

John William Collins

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Battle of the Somme, Canada, Canadian Infantry, Cannock Road, John Collins, Sheffield

John was born in Wolverhampton on 9 December 1886, the son of John and Emma Collins. In 1901, they were living at 79 Cannock Road, Wolverhampton, along with John’s siblings, Harry, Elsie Elizabeth, John Randolph, Florence Alf [sic], and Winifred Emily. John was an errand boy. John’s father died in 1901, and his mother married William Morton later the same year. By 1911, the family had emigrated to Canada. John became a fireman.

On 22 May 1915, he enlisted in the 51st Battalion of the Canadian Infantry (number 437320). On 3 September 1916, he received a gun shot wound to his nose and left ear at the Somme, and was taken to Wharncliffe War Hospital in Sheffield. He recovered and was discharged from hospital in January 1917. However, he was killed in action on 6 November 1917. He is remembered at the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.

John Lewis Anderton Grout

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John Grout, London Gazette, Military Cross, Royal Army Medical Corps, Rugby, Sheffield, Tettenhall Road, Waterloo Road, Wellington College, Worcestershire

John was born in Lye, Worcestershire, in 1889, the son of John and Mary Julie Grout. He attended Wellington College, where he was in 1901. They had moved to 10 Waterloo Road, Wolverhampton, by 1911, here his father was a physician and a surgeon. They lived there with John’s sisters Elsie Theodora, Audrey Violet and Elaine Joyce. John was a medical student.

He enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps, and became a Captain. On 6 April 1918, the London Gazette announced that he had been awarded the Military Cross,

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in conducting a number of stretcher squads through very heavy shell fire to the aid-posts after they had previously failed to get through. Two bearers were killed and three wounded, but by his gallant action over forty stretcher cases were got to safety. Later, he personally conducted squads to these aid-posts under similar circumstances.

A small article also appeared in the Express & Star on 9 April 1918, by which date his father’s address was given as 59 Tettenhall Road.

John survived the war, and married Mary E. Harris in Rugby in 1919. He died on 27 November 1963 at The Royal Hospital, Sheffield at the age of 74, and left items to the value of £24125.

Ernest Edgar Pugh

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Belgium, Coldstream Guards, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Ernest Pugh, Limes Road, London, Midland Counties Express, Royal Orphanage, Sheffield, Tettenhall, Tettenhall Church School

There is a small article in the scrapbook of First World War newspaper cuttings dated 25 April 1915, which states the following:

The boys at Tettenhall Church Sunday School opened the day’s proceedings yesterday by singing the hymn ‘Fight the Good Fight’, in memory of the late Private E. E. Pugh, of the Coldstream Guards, who was the first of the old boys of the school to be killed in action during the present war. Private Pugh lived in Limes Road, Tettenhall, when he attended the Sunday School, and he afterwards entered the Royal Orphanage of Wolverhampton.

The Commonwealth War Graves site confirms that Ernest Edgar Pugh of the Coldstream Guards (number 8601) was killed on 23 October 1914 aged 22. He was the son of Lydia Fayram Raybould (formerly Pugh), of 2, Tabley Road, Tufnell Park, London, and the late James Benjamin Pugh.

Ernest Edgar Pugh was born in Sheffield in 1892, and at some point the family obviously moved to Wolverhampton. His father died aged 37 in 1900, and his mother remarried to a William J. Raybould in 1912 in King’s Norton. His father’s death is presumably the reason he spent some time in the Royal Orphanage, now the Royal School. Ernest Pugh is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium. He was featured in the Midland Counties Express on 3 February 1917 as one of the Old Boys of the Royal Orphanage. The article states that he “took part in much very hard campaigning and endured faithfully to the end”.