Name
Albert Henry Lee
1899
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
09/09/1918
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
56952
10th Lancashire Fusiliers
10th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
GOUZEAUCOURT NEW BRITISH CEMETERY
I. B. 3.
France
Headstone Inscription
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
UK & Other Memorials
Abbots Langley Village Memorial, Church of Ascension Memorial, Bedmond, Not on the Hemel Hempstead memorials
Pre War
Albert Henry Lee was born in 1899 in Hemel Hempstead, Herts, the son of William and Elizabeth Ada Lee and was baptised on 6 August 1899 in Abbots Langley, Herts.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at High Street, Hemel Hempstead, where his father was working as a Carman for a brickmaker. They moved to Abbots Langley in about 1904 and on the 1911 Census they were living at Weedons Bottom, Bedmond, nr Kings Langley, Herts. (also near Abbots Langley).
His parents later lived at Market Oak, Leverstock Green, Hemel Hempstead.
Wartime Service
Albert enlisted in Watford and joined the 10th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers.
In early September the Battalion was preparing for an attack on Heather Trench, south west of Gouzeaucourt and were heavily shelled, resulting in significant casualties. Albert was killed in action on 9 September 1918, aged 19, and is buried at Gouzeaucourt New British Cemetery, France.
Biography
Albert Henry Lee was born in the summer of 1899 at Hemel Hempstead, the eldest of six children born to William Lee and Elizabeth Ada (nee Porter). On the 1901 Census William was shown working as a Labourer for a Brick Maker and the family lived at High Street Green, Adeyfield in Hemel Hempstead. By the time of the 1911 Census the Lee’s lived at Weedon Bottom House at Bedmond where William worked as a Farm Labourer, and so Albert’s association with Abbots Langley began.
Albert enlisted at Watford, and in November 1917 the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine Roll of Honour listed him serving with the 27th Training Reserve, before being recorded with the Bedfordshire’s in January 1918. Little is known about Albert’s time in the Army, as his Service Record has not survived. At some point in 1918 he was transferred to the 10th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. He was killed in action on 9th September 1918, just over a month before his uncle, Albert Charles Lee, also from Bedmond, was killed in action serving with the 11th Essex, only a few miles away in France.
The German Army’s Spring Offensive had pushed the Allied armies some 30 miles back, but the Allies re-grouped and from August 1918 started a relentless advance, re-taking all of the lost ground. The Germans fell back to pre-prepared defensive positions along the Hindenburg Line. On 9th September, after being subjected to a bombardment and gas attack, the British attacked in strength between Havrincourt Wood and Gouzeaucourt, to the south-west of Cambrai. The attack was one of many localised actions aimed at slowly chipping away at the German defences. It was during this action that Albert Lee was killed in action. The British took their objectives and by night occupied Havrincourt Heights and took 1,000 prisoners.
The November 1918 Abbots Langley Parish Magazine recorded – “The nephew of Albert Charles Lee of Bedmond, Albert Henry Lee, of the 10th Lancashire Fusiliers, was killed in action in France on 9th September. He was only just 19 years of age, and had been in France only a short time. He was a very quiet, retiring youth, who went about his own business, and everyone who knew him held him in affectionate regard”.
Albert Henry Lee was buried at Gouzeaucourt New British Cemetery in France, and was commemorated on the Abbots Langley War Memorial. He was also commemorated on the War Memorial at the Church of the Ascension at Bedmond.
War Gratuity of £4 and arrears of £5 1s 5d paid to his mother.
Additional Information
Mrs E A Lee, Market Oak, Leverstock Green, Hemel Hempstead, Herts. ordered his headstone inscription: "GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN". His mother received a war gratuity of £4 and pay owing of £5 1s 5d.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper, Brenda Palmer
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org, www.hemelatwar.org.
