Mystery grave tribute to fallen Black Country hero of war

The gesture, which followed the Express & Star highlighting how war graves had been uncovered in an overgrown Black Country churchyard, has deeply touched the grandsons of Private James Southall.

Private Southall was killed in action in August 1916 and, although buried in Londsdale Cemetery in the Somme region of France, his widow paid for a memorial to him in St Peter's Churchyard, in Cradley, Halesowen.

His grandchildren, Dennis and John Rose, were delighted when a labour of love by a group of ex-servicemen uncovered the memorial.

"It's a lovely thing to do," said Dennis, aged 70, of Hockley Lane, Netherton, Dudley. "We went up there with some daffodils on Monday and found the posy which had been placed there. It looks lovely and we would like to thank whoever did it."

Dennis and his brother, 61-year-old John, of Coppice Lane, Quarry Bank, had already spotted the previous week that someone had also cleaned up and polished the stone.

They have asked the working parties from Cradley and District Ex-Service Association and the probation service – which is taking groups of offenders to the graveyard to do community service – if they knew who had carried out the kind gesture.

But their identity remains a mystery.

"I was gobsmacked when I saw what they'd done – but thank you, whoever you are," said Norman Catton, chairman of the association. "I can only assume it's someone who saw the feature in the Express & Star."

Private Southall enlisted in the 2nd Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment in 1914, left a widow, Dora, and two children, Elsie and Jesse.

Dora worked as a chain maker in the backyard of their home in New Street, Cradley, and scraped together to pay sixpence a week for the Italian marble memorial stone.

Heartbreakingly, it also served as the grave of their son, Jesse, who was killed, aged 15, in a horrific factory accident in Old Hill in 1929. Dora, who later remarried to become Mrs Stoneley, died in 1979, aged 87.

The group of ex-servicemen have kickstarted a project to clean up St Peter's churchyard which contains memorials to soldiers who were lost in the conflict. Cradley men who died in France, Flanders, Salonika in Greece and even further afield in Gallipoli, Turkey and Iraq were among almost 900,000 British servicemen killed.

As the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War'approaches this summer, projects have sprung up around the Black Country to honour the men who sacrificed their lives for the sake of their country. Members of Cradley and District Ex-Service Association clearing graves at St Peter's have so far uncovered five from the First World War, seven from the Second World War and even one from the Second Boer War. In Sedgley, a group at All Saints' Church is tracing information about the 70 servicemen and women on the war memorial.

Members of the Wall Heath and Kingswinford War Memorials Research Group have pieced together information about 107 of the 112 men from their area known to have served in the two biggest conflicts of the 20th century. And two historians from Lye are researching First World War gravestones for a commemorative book.

• l Do you have a project to tidy up a graveyard as part of the 100th anniversary of the Great War – or do you want help to launch a similar campaign? Do you have stories about your ancestors who served in the conflict? We want to hear from you – contact Louise Jew on 01384 353201 or email louise.jew@expressandstar.co.uk