Name
Arthur Henry Albone
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/03/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
82514
Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)
63rd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ARRAS MEMORIAL
Bay 10
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, Hitchin, Not on the Stevenage memorials
Pre War
He was born in Stevenage on the 8th January 1892 and educated there.
He was the son of the late Joseph Albone of Stevenage and his widowed mother Emma lived at 19, Haycraft Road, Stevenage. He also had brothers and sisters.
In 1901 they were living in Letchmore Green, his father working as a carpenter the children were Ernest (24), Julia A (13), Florence M (11), Arthur Henry (9) and Nellie Mary (6).
In 1911 they had moved to 20 Haycroft Lane, Stevenage, Herts. present were Joseph now listed as carpenter living off private means but an invalid. Also present were son Millar George (27) missing in 1901, now working as a machinist in a joinery works, and of the children previously mentioned, were Julia Ann, a cook, Arthur Henry worked as a postman and Nellie Mary was listed as a domestic servant. The census confirmed that Joseph and Emma had been married for 38 years, had eleven children of whom three had died.
At the time of his enlistment in Bedford on the 19th October 1916, he was resident in Hitchin, living at 1 Nursery Villas on Queen Street. Before joining up, he was employed by the Post Office. He had been a messenger boy and a postman in Stevenage and moved to the Hitchin Post Office later. For he worked for 6 years and 11 months
He married Ethel Jennie Sadler in the parish church in Stevenage on the 10th June 1916. They had a daughter Claribel Jennie who was born on the 11th August 1917. Their home was at 1, Nursery Villas, Queen St. Hitchin.
Wartime Service
Initially he was Regimental Number 8042 in the London Regiment but was later posted as Number 82514 into the 63rd Battalion Machine Gun Corps (Infantry) where he was a signaller in France. He went to France on the 21st April 1917 and was in action at Trescault when he was shot dead whilst carrying a wounded gunner. He was buried in Trescault near Cambrai.
He had been home on leave the month before his death.
A comrade wrote, "I, along with Private Albone, was up the line signalling, when one of our gunners was wounded. Volunteers were asked for to carry the lad to the dressing station. Albone was the first to answer the call and it was while carrying the lad he was hit and died instantly. - He was a good soldier and a good chum and all the lads miss his bright and sunny disposition".
He has no known grave and is remembered on Bay 10 of the Arras Memorial to the Missing, Pas de Calais, France.
Additional Information
The newspaper (13/4/1918) reporting his death noted that he had two brothers serving; on was in hospital and the other still serving with the Forces.
Acknowledgments
Derry Warners
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
