Name
Alfred Mead
25 March 1885
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
03/05/1917
32
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
3/7947
Bedfordshire Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ARRAS MEMORIAL
Bay 5.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Little Gaddesden Village Memorial, St Peter & St Paul Church Roll of Honour, Little Gaddesden, St Peter & St Paul Church Roll of Honour (2018 Revision), Little Gaddesden, Not on the Great Gaddesden memorials
Pre War
Alfred Mead was born on 25 March 1885 in Great Gaddesden in 1885, the son of William and Elizabeth Mead and baptised there on 31 May 1885.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at 'The Barracks', Great Gaddesden where his father was a Stone Breaker for Roads. They remained there on the 1901 Census at which time Alfred was working as a Horsekeeper on a Farm.
He married Isabella Vickers on 10 November 1906 at St John the Baptist Church, Great Gaddesden and they were living at 11 Little Gaddesden, Berkhamsted on the 1911 Census, together with their two daughters Doris and Winnie. They later had two more daughters, Cissie (1912) and Florence (1914).
Wartime Service
He enlisted into the 7th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment at Hertford and served in France from 27th July 1915.
He was wounded on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, with other men from D Company, 7th Battalion, during the attack on Pommiers Redoubt. He recovered and returned to the Front.
On 3rd May
1917, aged 32, he was killed in action during the Battle of Arras (3rd Battle of the
Scarpe), He has no known
grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France.
Additional Information
Alfred's younger brother, Lance Sergeant Ernest Mead, 13th Btn, Royal Sussex Regt, died of wounds on the Somme on 23 October 1916 and is buried at Puchevillers British Cemetery, Somme, France and he is named on the Great Gaddesden War Memorial and Church Roll of Honour. His widow received a war gratuity of £12 and pay owing of £6 11s 2d.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, dacorumheritage.org.uk, hemelatwar.org., littlegaddesdenchurch.org.uk
