Name
Albert Edgar Holt
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
15/12/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
235582
Leicestershire Regiment
8th Bn
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
SOISSONS MEMORIAL
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Bushey Town Memorial,
Not listed on the Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
Born in 1898 in Hampstead, London, Albert Edgar Holt was the son of William Grace and Miriam (née Hodges) Holt. His parents were married on 30 April 1877 at the church of St Mark, Tollington Park, Islington.
The 1899 electoral register for Hampstead includes William Holt living at 45, Iverson Road.
At the 1901 Census, the family had moved to 7, Bournehall Road, Bushey and the census form includes eight children; Mary, William, Harry, Thomas, Arthur, Robert, Albert and David. William, an acting police sergeant, was 45 years old, Miriam was 44 and the children were 19, 16, 14, 12, 7, 4, 3 and 5 months old respectively. Their birthplaces are given as Whitchurch, Bucks for William, Maidenhead, Berks for Miriam, Bromley, Kent for Mary, Bushey, Herts for David and Hampstead, London for all of the other children. Also lodging with the family was William Sewell, a student at Herkomer art school.
The record of William Grace’s retirement from the Metropolitan Police gives his last day of employment as 1st July 1906 and his entitlement to a pension of £57 8s 6d per annum.
At the 1911 Census, the family was still at the same address. William Grace was now a police pensioner and working as a nurseryman and jobbing gardener. He and Miriam had 13 children of which 11 had survived. Five of these are still living at home, including Mary Daisy, Arthur John, Robert George, Albert Edgar and David. Mary is working as “mother’s help” and the rest of the children are at school, with Albert also working as a houseboy (or possibly newsboy).
Wartime Service
Albert enlisted in Hertford as Private 265830 in the Hertfordshire Regiment and was later transferred as Private 235582 in the Leicestershire Regiment.
He served on the Western Front and died on 15 December 1918, aged about 20. He is remembered with honour on the Soissons Memorial in France and also commemorated on the Bushey Memorial on Clay Hill.
Albert’s pension record card names his mother as his dependant, living at 7, Bourne Hall Road, Bushey. That address is subsequently crossed through and substituted with Bourne Hall, Luscombe Road, Shanklin, Isle of Wight.
Additional Information
Information provided with the kind permission of Bushey First World War Commemoration Project – Please visit www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk.
It is not yet clear why he has no grave.
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
