Name
Alfred James Desborough
1897
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
30/10/1918
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
58288
Northamptonshire Regiment
D Coy. 1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CROSS ROADS CEMETERY, FONTAINE-AU-BOIS
II. I. 24.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Baldock memorials, Edworth Roll of Honour, (brass plaque in porch) St George's Church (disused), Beds.
Pre War
Alfred James Desborough was born in 1897 in Margam, Port Talbot, Wales, the son of William and Charlotte Desborough (nee Bean).
On the 1901 Census the family were living at the village of Edworth, nr Baldock, Herts where his father was working as a horsekeeper on a farm. His father had been born in Edworth. Alfred was the youngest of four children, with sisters Evelyn and Anne and brother William. They remained in Edworth in 1911, his father was then a stockman on a farm and Alfred was a 13 year old schoolboy.
His parents later lived at the Pebbles, Dunton, Biggleswade, Beds.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Bedford and joined the Northamptonshire Regiment. He had only been in France for six weeks when he died.
The local newspaper Hertfordshire Express reported in an article of the 23 November 1918:
"Mr. and Mrs. W. Desborough, of Edworth, have received the sad news that their son, Private Alfred G. Desborough, Northants. Regiment, was shot through the head on October 30th, his 21st birthday, by a German machine gun. Private Desborough was very popular among the people of Edworth and Hinxworth, and was a member of the Wesleyan Church. He has served on the Western Front only six weeks."
Alfred is buried in Cross Roads Cemetery, Fontaine-au-Bois, Nord, France.
Additional Information
N.B. Alfred James Desborough was mistakenly referred to as Alfred G. Desborough in the Hertfordshire Express.
His mother received a war gratuity of £5 and pay owing of £6 6s 1d. She also received a pension of five shillings a week.
Brother to William John Desborough who served in the war but survived and is named on the Edworth Roll of Honour of those who served in the 'Great War'.
Acknowledgments
Derry Warners, Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild
