King Edward’s School and the Great War

Howard Hallam, born on 25th March 1887, was admitted to King Edward’s School aged 10, in January 1898. His father, Frederick, was a grocer, but by the time of the 1911 Census, Howard was living with his widowed mother, Ellen, and four of his six brothers, all also Old Edwardians, at 24, Strensham Road, Balsall Heath. One of these brothers, George, served with the Royal Fusiliers and was wounded twice during the war; another, Arthur, who had left home by 1911, served with the Royal Garrison Artillery.

At School, Howard was a strong academic, coming top of his class in 1902 as both a linguist and a scientist. After School, he became an insurance clerk, as did his younger brother Leslie.

Howard enlisted as a Trooper in the Warwickshire Yeomanry in 1914, and was sent to Egypt, sustaining a serious wound at Suvla Bay the following year. After a period of recuperation at home, he joined the Officer Cadet Battalion in Oxford, and gained a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was then sent to France where he was killed on 4th October 1917. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial. Two of his brother made separate applications for his medals in 1919. At the time of his death, Harold’s home address was registered as 93, Springfield Road, Kings Heath, and he left his estate of £427 to his brother, John William Hallam.