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A GREAT WAR SOLDIER FROM BLOXWICH

 

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Frederick Crutchley
 

The image above is of my first cousin, twice removed, Frederick William Crutchley. He was born on January 1st 1900 in Bloxwich and baptised at All Saint's, Bloxwich on February 4th 1900. Frederick was the son of Thomas Henry and Clara (nee Somerfield) Crutchley, he married Florence Sturgess who was born on August 18th 1902.

The photograph above shows Frederick William in uniform in 1918, immediately after the end of the Great War. During the war, 121237 Private Frederick William Crutchley served in the 5th Battalion Sherwood Foresters. He survived the Great War, returned home and was married to Florence Sturgess. The image below shows Frederick's 'Welcome Home' card, awarded by Walsall Free Churches.

Welome Home 1918

Following his military service, Frederick found employment at the Talbot Stead Tube Company on Green Lane, Walsall. This prominent Walsall company was one of a number of tube makers operating in the town and was probably the largest of them during the time of Frederick's employment. The business itself was founded in 1906 by W. J. Talbot and Geoffrey Stead, their factory being located on the east side of Green Lane. Talbot Stead’s main products were seamless solid drawn steel tubes and bright drawn steel bars. A major customer was the Royal Navy, who used Talbot's Stead's tubes in the boilers of many of their warships during the Great War. Another notable beneficiary of the manufacturing skill of this Black Country firm and its Walsall workforce was the famous shipping line Cunard, who utilised Talbot Stead’s tubes in the boilers of their iconic ocean liner, RMS Queen Mary.

The company's heyday came in 1960, when production orders necessitated the employment of 2,250 local people. In 1931 Talbot-Stead merged with Tube Investments Ltd., then became TI Stainless Tubes Ltd in 1962. The Walsall manufacturing site was closed in 1972, prompting the notorious local MP John Stonehouse to raise the subject of the closure, and resultant 1,400 redundancies in the House of Commons on 3rd August 1972. However, this terrible event did not mark the end of tube manufacture in Green Lane, Walsall. In 1973, TI Chesterfield Ltd., leased the site from its owners and continued to manufacture tubes in stainless steel. Eventually of course manufacturing did cease on this site, after generations of Walsall folk had found work ‘Down the Tubes’. Today the site remains a place offering significant numbers of jobs to Walsall people, being home to a large distribution centre for the retailer TK Maxx.

The image below, which was probably taken around 1960, shows Frederick (front row, far left, seated on the ground) together with a large group of fellow Talbot Stead employees.

Talbot Stead Tube Co.

Frederick died on September 1st 1984 and is buried in Bloxwich Cemetary on Field Road. He was laid to rest with his wife Florence who died on May 18th 1968.

Acknowledgments.

Many thanks to Norman Crutchley, Frederick's son, who provided all of the images included above.