TWO Kidderminster brothers who were killed on consecutive days during the First World War are being remembered by family on the 100th anniversaries of their deaths.

Private Frank Stanley Underwood was serving with the 10th Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment when he was killed in France on March 21 1918 at the age of just 22.

His parents Frank and Matilda, of Lea Street, Kidderminster, suffered an immediate second tragedy when their 25-year-old son Lance Sergeant Albert Edward Underwood, who was fighting with the 2nd South African Regiment, died the next day.

Their anxiety was increased further as another son Sidney was also serving with one of the Worcestershire Regiments, although he later returned home.

The fallen brothers were two of 10 children and their names are carved on the War Memorial wall at St Mary’s Church in Kidderminster.

Their remaining family, who live in Kidderminster, Canada and Australia have continued to honour the brothers and have spent this week reflecting on their loss.

Daryl Smith, whose mother Marjorie was the youngest of the siblings and emigrated to Canada in 1946, said: “Of course many Kidderminster boys were involved in the war and no doubt other brothers were killed.

“But how likely would it have been that brothers were killed on back-to-back days like my uncles Stan and Bert on March 21 and March 22, 1918 respectively?

“In the subsequent days, a dreaded knock came to the door. How horrible the news must have been for the parents. And a few days later without any time to absorb the first tragic news, another knock.

“Two of their sons lost in France at a place whose name would not have been familiar, no chance to say goodbye.

“My mother recalled the arrival of the life-altering news and the extreme anguish of the family.

“The news was always simple: that a son had been killed. There were no details, there were none to have really and what difference did it make?

“She told me that after the death of her brothers, the parents were never the same."

Mr Smith said his mother, who died in October 2014 at the age of 105, often asked to return home to Kidderminster in her final years.

Mr Smith himself made the trip over in 2016 and 2017 to meet his cousins and their children and grandchildren.

This included meeting 10-year-old Sutton Park Primary School pupil Conall Jenkins who completed a project on his great-grand uncles.

He added: “It was so memorable to have this connection. We talked about our uncles and wondered how different our time together would have been if Uncle Stan and Uncle Bert had had descendants who could be sitting with us.

“We all agreed that it is very important to keep the memories relevant.”