AMOS Arthur

Awarded Military Medal (M.M.)

Arthur Amos lived at 7 Hanbury Passage, Stourbridge, and was an out-porter for the G.W.R at Stourbridge Junction. He enlisted early in 1916 in the Worcester Territorials and joined the 1st/8th Battalion. This Battalion saw a great deal of action during the battle of the Somme and suffered heavily during attacks on Ovillers in July and on the Ovillers Spur in August. They returned to the front line in October during the struggle for the Transloy Ridges. In February 1917 the battalion moved to the front line near Biaches opposite Peronne. This was soon to be abandoned by the German forces as they withdrew to the Hindenburg Line. To protect the withdrawal they shelled the British trenches very heavily on the 4th March. Two men were killed and Private Arthur Amos was one of these. He had been awarded the Military Medal some time earlier, probably in the last phase of the Somme, and this was not gazetted until after his death (London Gazette 26 April 1917). He was 30 years of age.

Private Amos is mentioned in a report on his friend, Private George Banner, who died alongside him in the same explosion, Bromsgrove Weekly Advertiser, 31st March 1917.