WILLIAM NORMAN GROVES (1907-1912 : 20), Lance-Corporal in the 1/6th Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment, was the eldest son of Mr & Mrs W H Groves of Parkdale, Wolverhampton.  He was good at most sports and played serviceably as half-back in the 1st XI for two seasons.  In 1913 he was articled to a firm of chartered accountants and he lost no time in offering his services when war began.  So strong was his wish to be doing that he refused a commission, and in March 1915, he was already in the battle area.  He was in many battles and it is worth while to turn to his description of the magnificent storming of the Hobenzollern Redoubt, which appeared in The Wulfrunian of December 1915.  The narrative conveys a vivid picture of the attack but avoids all mention of the writer’s part in it.  Yet for eighty hours he was without sleep and, in the performance of perilous duties voluntarily undertaken, had many narrow escapes, his clothing being several times pierced by bullets.  In the attack on Gommecourt on July 1st 1916, he volunteered to accompany the bombers as a signaller and was wounded in the shoulder.  All day he lay in a shell-hole but ten yards from the German parapet and no tidings of him have ever been received, so that his death is now presumed.  His commanding officer spoke of him as “a gallant soldier and very popular”, and his comrades found a gloom in the loss of one who had been the life and soul of the squad.