Name
Albert George King
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
16/05/1917
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
27593
Border Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
DUISANS BRITISH CEMETERY, ETRUN
IV. L. 20.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Odsey Village Memorial, Not on the Ashwell memorials, Not on the Sandon memorials*1
Pre War
Son of John Edward and Sophia King of Slip End, Ashwell and is the uncle of Maureen Miller (nee King) of Sandon.
Resident Ashwell. Enlisted Hitchin.
The King family have been traced back to 1851 when James 51 living on Roe Green was married to Mary 52 and had their children Lydia 26 (straw platter) James 24 (ag lab) John 21 (ag lab) Ann 18 (straw platter) Edward 17 (ag lab) Mary 15 (straw platter) Sarah 14 (straw platter) Joseph 11 (ploughboy) and Elizabeth 5
By 1871 young James King was an agricultural labourer,(44) living with his wife Elizabeth (49) and their 5 children on Roe Green. George was 17, James 14, Mary Ann 11, Elizabeth 8 and John Edward 4 (The future father of our soldiers)
By 1881 The family were still on Roe Green with 3 children still living at home and with one grandchild in residence too.
By 1901 the census tells us that young John Edward had married Sophia from Rushden and was living at Bury Barnes with children John 14, Ethel, 11, Wallace 8 Albert, 6, (our soldiers) and Agnes 6 months.
Young James was now 44 and was married to Mary 45 and had Arthur 19, Walter 17, Elsie 14, Francis 12and Herbert 8.
Therefore Walter was the cousin of Albert and Wallace.
Officially Albert is recorded as enlisting, but a family story is that at the outset of war, according to a family story, the 2 boys walked from Slip End where the family was living to Bedford to enlist, although the CWGC records Wallace joining in Bedford and Albert in Hitchin. A newspaper article in the Hertfordshire Express dated the 17th of June 1917 states that Albert joined up in the Essex Territorials in April 1916 and was afterwards transferred to the Borderers.
Wartime Service
The battalion war diary suggests:
In the week before his death Albert would have been involved in physical training and musketry bayonet fighting (9th.) . On the 10th. they had training in the morning then watched a hockey match with the Border and Inniskillen Officers V. the M.G. and R.A.M.C. in the afternoon. Training was undertaken on the 11th. and Brigade Sports was held on the 12th. under ideal weather conditions. The guard mounting parade was easily won by the Border Regiment. On May 13th. the regiment moved to Arras..from Duisans They left at 4.30 and arrived at 6pm. going straight into billets. Preliminary arrangements for an attack were made.The 14th. was said to be a restful day but they moved up to the Feuchy crossroads on the front line at 10pm. relieving the Suffolks and getting into position at 2.30 am. May 15th. was spent improving the trenches and making latrines which were non¬existent. A patrol went out to observe Devils Trench, an objective for the following days.
On May 16th. the day of Albert's death their trenches were heavily shelled at 4pm. resulting in 7 casualties (wounded) Two platoons moved then to strong points N.and S. of Monchy Le Preux.
Albert was said to have died of wounds and is buried at Duisans west of Arras where the regiment had moved up from on 13th. So the question remains as to whether he had already been injured before 13th and had been left behind at the casualty clearing station there where he died or was he one of those wounded on the 16th and taken back to Duisans (9 miles).
The local paper article announcing his death mentions that shortly after arriving in France in September 1916 he returned to England with scarlet fever and diphtheria. Having spent time recovering on the Isle of Man he was returned to France in February 1917 where he died at a dressing station on the 16th of May after having been wounded in the head.
Additional Information
Died of Wounds 16th May 1917 less than one month after his brother Wallace ten miles to the north.
Albert and his brother Wallace are also commemorated on the family headstone in Standon (St. Mary) Churchyard. Their inscription reads:
ALSO OF HER (Sophia King) BELOVED SONS
WALLACE FREDERICK KING KILLED IN ACTION APRIL 23RD 1917 AGED 24 YEARS.
AND OF
ALBERT GEORGE KING DIED OF WOUNDS IN FRANCE MAY 16TH 1917 AGED 20 YEARS.
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
Acknowledgments
Derry Warners
Adrian Pitts, Paul Johnson, Jean Handley
