Name
Alfred Frank Luck
1887
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
13/11/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
266764
Hertfordshire Regiment
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 12 C.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
St John the Evangelist Church Memorial, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford
Pre War
Alfred Frank Luck was born in early 1887 in Camden, St Pancras, London, the son of Alfred and Sarah Luck, and baptised on 13 October 1889 in Harpenden, Herts. He was one of five children, two of which died in infancy. When Alfred was born, the family were living in Camden and his father was working as a Clerk for the Midland Railway and he remained in that employment in 1891 when the Census records the family living in The Village, Harpenden.
On the 1901 Census, the family were living with his grandfather Francis Luck at Cowper Road, Harpenden. His grandfather was a Jobbing Gardener and both Alfred and his father worked for Anderson, Abbott & Anderson, manufacturers of India rubber and oilskin products, at the Heathfield Works in Harpenden, Herts.
In 1903 the family moved to 6 Two Waters Road, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead. Alfred found new employment working for Baldersons (a dealer in coal, coke, stone, corn and timber) as a General Labourer, and in December 1903 he joined the Militia, probably to supplement his wages. His service was short-lived, however, as on 30 January 1904 he was discharged for "having made a misstatement as to age on enlistment". He had claimed to be 17 years 10 months when he was 16 years and 10 months and therefore too young to enlist.
He married Annie Maple in 1907 in Hemel Hempstead and they lived at 115 Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead, They had 3 children, Alfred (1907), Violet (1909) and Ernest (1911).
Prior to enlistment he had been working for James Major Picton, landlord of the Steam Coach pub on St John's Road, Boxmoor.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Hemel Hempstead in 1915 and joined the Hertfordshire Regiment . After basic training he was posted to the 1st Battalion and sent to France at the beginning of 1916 joining the Battalion at Ham-en-Artois and fought in a number of engagements in 1916.
He was killed in action on 13 November 1916 during the Battle of the Ancre. The Battalion was assembled with the Cambridgeshires and East Lancs at the Schwaben Redoubt and just before dawn the guns opened fire into the thick mist. They soon achieved their objectives, capturing the HANSA line and advancing over 1600 yards. More than 240 prisoners were captured and many Germans killed. The line was consolidated and the position held. Alfred was one of 25 killed or missing on that day. He has no known grave but his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £5 10s and pay owing of £1 9s 8d. She also received a pension of £1 6s 3d a week for herself and her children. She later remarried to Harry Johnson on 24 December 1917. When she remarried she received a remarriage gratuity of £34 17s 4d. The children's pension continued to be paid to the mother. His sister Edith married Frederick Room from Dunstable who was killed in 1918.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.hemelatwar.org., www.dacorumheritage.org.uk., www.bedfordregiment.org.uk/hertsrgt., www.hemelheroes.com.
