Name
Alfred William Young
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
21/10/1914
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
8806
Coldstream Guards
3rd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star (with Clasp & Roses), British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 11.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
No Report
UK & Other Memorials
Potters Bar, Little Heath & Bentley Heath Memorial, Potters Bar, All Souls Chapel Book of Remembrance, Potters Bar, Not on the South Mimms memorials
Pre War
Alfred William Young was born in 1894 in South Mimms to Arthur Young, Police Constable and Jane (nee Buckell).
On the 1881 Census parents and Louise Jane (born 1880) were living at 2, Ebenezer Cottages South Mimms. On the 1901 Census Alfred was living with his widowed mother, Arthur, Charles at Oakloyd, South Mimms.
Alfred enlisted in the Coldstream Guards on 15 Aug 1910. On the 1911 Census he is recorded living in Barracks, ranked as Boy with 3rd Battalion, he would be later listed as Private 8806.
Wartime Service
In Aug 1914 on the outbreak of the Great War 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards were a unit of 4th (Guards) Brigade 2nd Division and landed at Le Havre on 13 Aug 1914.
They took part in the Battle of Mons and the subsequent rear guard action during the retreat. They were in action at the Marne (7 Sep 1914), Aisne (12-15 Sep) before deploying to the Ypres Sector to take part in the 1st Battle of Ypres at the Battle of Langemarck (21 – 24 Oct 1914). It was during this last action on 21 Oct 1914 that Alfred was reported missing believed killed in action at St Julien. His remains were not recovered and his remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres.
Additional Information
War Gratuity of £5 and arrears of £8 7s 2d was paid to his widowed mother. Alfred is also commemorated on his uncle's grave in Potters Bar (St. Mary) Church Cemetery. His part of the inscription reads:
ALSO OF ALFRED WILLIAM YOUNG NEPHEW OF THE ABOVE [George Benjamin Young] KILLED IN ACTION 21ST OCT. 1914 AGED 20 YEARS.
PEACE PERFECT PEACE
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
