Service No: 140564 Machine Gun Infantry 8th Battalion
Military Service No’s: 30857 Devonshire Regt 14571 Worcestershire Regt
The Beginning
The Stories Behind the Headstones Project started very personally. My husband’s ancestors are buried in the graveyard and his Aunt Vera took me to see the grave and to explain the family history. She hadn’t been well and it had been some time since she’d visited. Despite knowing exactly where…
Read moreSmall Steps Forwards
My son and three of his friends volunteered to help me and we started to uncover graves completely covered in brambles and hidden from views for decades.
Read moreSamuel’s Childhood
Samuel Andrews was born in Sutton Coldfield on 11th November 1887, the third of the eight children, six sons, two daughters, of parents James Andrews, a coachman and Maria Marshall.
The family moved to Timberley Cottage in Castle Bromwich sometime between 1910 and 1911. By 1901 Samuel was employed as a gardener and by 1911 he had left home and was boarding at 27 Chequers Walk, Bath Row, Birmingham whilst employed as a horse-keeper.
Marriage and Children
He married Sarah Beatrice Berry on 1st November 1913 and their son, Samuel Kitchener James Andrews, was born on 29th August 1914. Two further children were born to the couple, Edna Beatrice on 8th April 1916 and Alfred Leonard on 6th February 1918.
Military Service
Shortly before his son’s birth Samuel enlisted with the army, serving at first with the Worcestershire Regiment (14571) before transferring firstly to the Devonshire Regiment and finally to the Machine Gun Corps in the spring of 1918.
Private Samuel Andrews was killed on 28th May 1918 during the Third Battle of the Aisne whilst serving with the 8th Battalion Machine Gun Corps.
The attack was launched early on 27 May with a ferocious heavy artillery bombardment of 4,000 guns across a 40 km front, against four divisions of IX Corps. Owing to the heavy concentration of primarily British troops in front-line trenches, casualties from the bombardment were severe; IX Corps itself was virtually wiped out. The bombardment was accompanied by a gas attack, designed to disable defensive gun crews, after which 17 divisions of German infantry, under Crown Prince Wilhelm, began their advance through a 40 km gap in the Allied line.
Between Soissons and Reims the Germans broke through a further eight Allied divisions, four British, four French, reaching the Aisne in under six hours. By the end of the first day the Germans had gained 15 km of territory and had reached the River Vesle. By 30 May the Germans had managed to capture 50,000 Allied soldiers and 800 guns, arriving within 90 km of Paris by 3 June.
Commemoration
Samuel Andrews is buried at Chambrecy British Cemetery, Marne, France and is commemorated on the Castle Bromwich War Memorial and on a plaque inside St Mary and St Margaret Church. Three of Samuel’s brothers are also known to have served in WW1, Alfred James Andrews (1886-1975) served in the Army Service Corps, Edward (1892-1972) served in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and Richard (1896-1968) served in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and the Hampshire Regiment.
“Little Sammy”
Interestingly, a family member recalled a letter from an elderly spinster cousin who wrote “I remember Aunt Maria (Sam’s mother) crying and saying …what will happen to poor little Sammy (Sam’s son).”
So, what did happen to little Sammy? Samuel Kitchener James Andrews was born on 29th August 1914. In 1936 he married Gladys Dixon and over the next nine years the couple had six children, five girls and a boy. But Samuel suffered from ill health and was destined to have a short life. On 26th February 1949 Samuel died of TB, aged 34.
This post is based on research by Alan Fewtrell and Terrie Knibb
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