Name
Alfred Ethelred Lancaster (*1)
29 Mar 1896
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
03/05/1917
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
G/40155
Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment)
12th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ARRAS MEMORIAL
Bay 7
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Welwyn Village Memorial, St Mary the Virgin Roll of Honour, Welwyn, Shenley Village Memorial
Pre War
Alfred Ethelred Lancaster was born in Shenley on 29 March 1896 the eldest son of William and Ellen Lancaster.
On the 1901 Census the family were living in Shenley where his father was a Police Constable. They remained there in 1911 and Alfred was working in a photographic materials factory. He later worked as a clerk for the Public House Trust in Radlett His father retired as a Policeman and became Manager of the Rose and Crown, Welwyn, then a Home Counties Public House Trust Hotel. His father later lived in Hastings. Sussex.
Wartime Service
He enlisted at Hounslow on 23rd November 1915 at initially in the Royal Fusiliers as reg. No. G/21234.
He was posted to France in March 1916 and on 4th June was wounded by shrapnel in the left arm. He was treated, initially in the Canadian General Hospital, Boulogne and returned to duty in August 1916, being almost immediately transferred to 12th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment.
He was posted as ‘missing’ on 3rd May 1917. His death was confirmed in November in a letter received by his mother from the British Red Cross: ‘We have received an account of your missing son from a man who knew him well and who apparently has written to you already, Pte. F. Buchan of the same company and who is in the Cornelia Hospital, Poole, Dorset. I am giving you his account in his own words. He says: "I saw Lancaster killed by a shell within Fritz’s second line. We reached that and were driven back afterwards. He was about 18 years of age, nice looking and dark. We were together in the 12th Fusiliers and transferred together to the Middlesex Regt. Buchan describes your son’s death as instantaneous, which I hope will be a comfort to you in the thought that it was free from suffering. We will send you any further report we may receive."
Additional Information
A war gratuity of £6 was granted to his father William, as well as pay owing of £8 1s 11d. Alfred had a brother, Clarence, in the Royal West Surrey Regiment also serving in France. N.B. Alfred is wrongly listed on Roll of Honour as Albert.
*1 Some reports name him as Albert Ethelbert.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer, Taff Williams
Paul Jiggens, Welwyn and District History Society - www.welwynww1.co.uk,
