Stan Collymore's grandfather was a Shropshire war hero
Former football star Stan Collymore has visited Telford to pay tribute to his grandfather and great uncles who served in the First World War.
The former England striker, who played for Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Liverpool, went to Dawley this week to retrace the early life of his grandfather Thomas Dunning, who survived the war despite being shot twice.
During the visit he also discovered the grave of his great uncle, Private Samuel Teece, who died of his injuries six days after the Armistice. Private Teece's younger brother, Tom, was also killed in battle in 1915.
Collymore's grandfather had signed up with the Kings Shropshire Light Infantry almost two years before the start of the conflict, and was a corporal by the time he joined the war effort in 1914.
He said: "My grandfather fought in the First World War, he was from Dawley Bank, and I went up there to get a feel for where he grew up.
"He was a professional soldier, he wasn't one of Kitchener's conscripts in 1914, he joined in Shrewsbury on December 31, 1912, and went off to do his training in Tipperary where the KSLI had a barracks."
With two years' experience already under his belt, Cpl Dunning was a prized asset at the start of the war, and he was sent to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force.
Convalescence
Cpl Dunning was sent to Ypres, and Collymore said he recorded in his diary that "at 3am on August 9 he went 'over the top', the Shropshires had to cover 500 yards of land." He was shot in the leg, and was sent back to the UK to recover.
"He was made a drill sergeant in the Royal Liverpool Regiment, he then goes back after a year of convalescence to the Somme," added Collymore.
"He was there for 90 days, but was shot again. He survived the war despite being shot twice."
He married Sybil Teece, who had two brothers, Thomas and Sam, who were both killed during the war.
"They weren't professional soldiers, they were conscripts who joined up in 1914. They were two young men very much of their time, who thought it would be all over by Christmas. They were very excited, they had very much an adventurous spirit."
Like Sgt Dunning, they served in the KSLI, and Thomas was killed at Ypres on September 25, aged 19. Samuel lived to see the Armistice, but only just: in the final week of fighting, he sustained a gunshot wound, and was sent back to Britain. He died from pneumonia at hospital in Birmingham on November 17, 1918. He was 27.
Both men are commemorated on the Dawley War Memorial, and Samuel is buried at St Leonard's Church in Malinslee, now Telford, which Collymore also visited.
