ONE of Worcestershire’s sons served as a soldier in one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War, it has been revealed.

Douglas Caswell, who was born in Powick, near Worcester, is one of up to 400 servicemen believed to rest in a burial pit dug behind German lines following the Battle of Fromelles in 1916. The pits in northern France were dug by German soldiers.

Private Caswell would have been about 21 at the time and served with the Australian Imperial Forces in the fight around the small village of Fromelles in northern France.

In the engagement, 19 days after the start of the Somme campaign, the 5th Australian Division suffered 5,533 casualties, with 1,780 killed.

The 61st British Division sustained 1,547 casualties.

According to records unearthed by the Fromelles Descendant Database, which is based in Australia, and English census data, Pte Caswell took the King’s Shilling in 1915 and served with the 30th battalion AIF.

He had emigrated with his father Edwin Caswell, a coal agent, in 1912, while his mother Sophie brought the remaining children, Nellie, Margaret and Ebborn, to Australia in 1913. The family were recording as living in Sand Pits, Powick, in 1901.

Bob Jenkins, of Upton Road, Powick, said locals remembered the coal yard but he had been unable to find anybody who could recall the Caswells.

Tim Lycett, descendant database project leader, said the battle at Fromelles was the single blackest day in Australian military history.

“Pte Caswell would have been among soldiers who assaulted the German trenches. But they were forced to pull back and the Germans were able to re-occupy their trench line,” he said.

“They buried the dead left behind but recovered all the ID tags and names and personal property which was then sent back through the Red Cross.”

He said work to uncover the location of the men buried in the pits had taken several years of painstaking research. The British and Australian Governments are now funding the dig and the remains are being examined by archaeologists.

Scientists are testing the remains to see if enough DNA material survives to identify descendants. If successful, wider tests will be carried out to trace relatives of all the soldiers. The remains will be laid to rest in graves at a new Commonwealth cemetery by 2010, the first to be built in 50 years.

l Are you a relative of Pte Caswell or do you remember his family living in the area? Get in touch by e-mailing rv@worcesternews.co.uk or calling 01905 742258.