Name
Albert Clayton
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
27/09/1914
24
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Sapper
20517
Royal Engineers
1st Signal Company
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
VAILLY BRITISH CEMETERY
I. AA. 24.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, Hitchin
Pre War
Albert was born in Rotherham in Yorkshire. He was employed in the telegraph wire section of the General Post Office and had moved from Aldershot to Hitchin in June 1914. He was the husband of Florence E. Clayton of 3, Anderson's Row, Florence Street, Hitchin and they had children aged two and seven. Another address given for him was 45, Bancroft, Hitchin.
He was in the Reserve from early 1914 and enlisted in Doncaster on the 5th August 1914
Wartime Service
He was the first fatal casualty on land from Hitchin. At first he held Regimental Number 9147 in the Yorks and Lancaster Regiment, but was later transferred to the Royal Engineers with the Service Number 20517. He served with No. 1 Signals Company and was killed in action in France.
He is buried in Plot 1, Row AA, Grave 24 in the Vailly British Cemetery in France. He was moved there during a concentration of burials His Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone shows him with the rank of Sapper. According to the CWGC concentration records he died on the 25th not the 27th he details were taken from the cross erected on his grave
Acknowledgments
David C Baines, Jonty Wild
