William Firman was not a native of Bartley Green having been in Harborne in 1893, the son of James and Eliza Firman nee Edge. The Firman family must have moved to Bartley Green sometime after 1912 as they are listed on the 1911 census as living at 1 Northfield Road, Harborne and do not appear on any of the 1912 records for Jiggins Lane.

James Firman was born in Bridgewater, Somerset in 1865, the son of William Firman of Woolwich in Kent and Elizabeth Firman who was born in Taunton In Somerset. By 1881 the family had moved to Birmingham and were living in Norfolk Street, James having found employment as an Iron Plate Worker. On 25th May 1890 he married Eliza Edge at St Thomas Church in Birmingham. Eliza was the daughter of Charles and Emily Edge of Birmingham, Charles being employed as a glass engraver.

By 1901 the family had grown with the birth of Henry in 1891, William in 1893, Arthur in 1897, Sidney in 1899 and Rose in 1900. The family were living at 2 Side Street in Harborne and James was working as a Tin Plate Worker. By 1911 William was making his own way in the world working as an assistant domestic gardner and boarding with John Markham and his family at 219 Vicarage Road in Kings Heath. At some point between 1911 and 1917, William found himself employment with Cadbury’s in Bournville.

William’s medal card shows that he did not serve abroad until after 1916 and may have  been conscripted as part of the Military Services Act. Initially he was signed to The Royal Army Service Corps, his service number was prefixed ‘T4’ indicating that he worked on transport and was part of Kitchener’s Fourth Army. Due to the size of the British Army in 1914 it was soon realised that more recruits would be required which led to the Minister for War, Lord Kitchener of Khartoum issuing his famous ‘Your Country Needs You’ recruiting posters. His initial plan was to recruit 100,000 men but such was the success of the campaign that there were soon nearly half a million recruits organised into four new Armies, named K1 to K4 respectively. The Fourth Army began to move overseas late 1915 and early 1916.

Following the losses suffered by the British Army in 1916, it was necessary to transfer troops between Regiments and battalions to keep up the fighting strength of the Unit. Thus at some point William Firman was transferred to the 18th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment.  The battalion had fought on the first day of the battle of the Somme and had successfully taken the village of Montauban however the battalion Diary recoded that ‘it had taken a mauling’.

In May 1917 the Battalion moved north to the Flanders area after taking part in various actions in and around Arras including the pursuit of the German Army to the Hindenburg Line. Preparations were under way for the Third Battle of Ypres which was to become better known by the name of a small village occupying high ground outside of Ypres; Passchendaele.

One of their first objectives was to take Sanctuary Wood and the Battalion War Diary describes scenes that we have come to associate with Passchendale, attacking heavily fortified positions and the suffering of the wounded as they sank in the Flanders mud, often six men having to carry a casualty on one stretcher. In Early December the Battalion moved to Polderhoek to relieve the Bedfordshire Regiment. The Battalion War Diary describes what happened next:

 

At 2.00am on the 14th a message was received from Brigade HQ that the enemy was preparing an attack on the Battalion’s sector. The troops in the line were stood to and at 6.00am the attack began accompanied by a heavy trench mortar and artillery barrage. The German troops appeared on the wire some 30 to 50yards away and tried to bomb their way towards and along the trenches, but were beaten off. About 10.00am the battalion was reinforced by 2 companies of the 17th Manchester’s-about 70 in number- and between 4 and 5pm 2 companies of the 2nd Royal Scots also reinforced. About 8.00pm a counter attack took place and, although the enemy put up stiff resistance they were beaten back.

Bombing blocks were established and the battles continued all of the day. In the early hours of the 15th the men, greatly exhausted were replaced at the bombing blocks by the 2nd Royal Scots. At 8.00am the enemy had established themselves in shell holes only 20 yards in front of the front line. They were held at bay until the supply of bombs ran out and the men then fell back to the support trenches. It was decided that this position was to be evacuated and the line was established in a stronger position 100 yards to the rear. 

Losses in the above actions were: 1 Officer and 119 Other ranks Killed, Wounded or Missing.

Among the other ranks killed on 14th December was William Firman. His body was never found and his name is engraved on the Memorial to the Missing at Tyne Cot Cemetery which lies between Ypres and Passchendaele.

A study of the 1918 absent voters list shows that by this time the family were living at 97 Jiggins Lane and three of William’s brothers, Sidney, Alfred and Arthur were all still serving and would survive the War. The family remained in Bartley Green with William’s sister Rose dying in 1919 and his father dying in 1925, both were buried in Bartley Green Cemetery. In 1926 William’s brother Sidney married Lizzie Hadley of Nonsuch Farm and in 1938, William’s mother Eliza died and was buried in Bartley Green with her husband and daughter. 

Paul Finegan