Name
Alfred Raymond Baines
3 August 1899
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
09/10/1918
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
40983
Northamptonshire Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CAGNONCLES COMMUNAL CEMETERY
4
France
Headstone Inscription
OUR LOSS, HIS GAIN
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, St John the Evangelist Church Memorial, Boxmoor, Boxmoor Baptist Church Memorial (now in Carey Baptist Church), Marlowes
Pre War
Alfred Raymond Baines was born on 3 August 1899 in Hemel Hempstead, the son of Alfred and Kate Baines, and one of 6 children, two of whom died in infancy.
On the 1901 Census, the family were living at Rough Down, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead, where his father was working as a Wood Moulding Machinist at Foster's Saw Mills.
He was educated from 1906 at Two Waters British School, near Boxmoor until 1912. A classmate Albert 'Bert' Charge also died in the war a few months before Alfred. He was a member of the newly formed Scout movement and earned several badges as well a being a bugler for the Boxmoor Troop.
By 1911, they had moved to 4 Pictons Bridge, Boxmoor, and Alfred was a schoolboy. When he left school he was employed at Foster's Saw Mills as a Clerk.
Wartime Service
He attested in Watford on 3 September 1917 and initially joined the Bedfordshire Regiment. He trained in Felixstowe and arrived in France on 1 April 1918, then being posted to the 7th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment.
His unit trained for the next month and were then moved to the frontline to relieve the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles in Hill 70 Sector at Les Brebis on 2 May. The enemy was relatively quiet until the end of May when they began to use gas shells and on 1 June the Battalion War Diary recorded that 3 other ranks were suffering from gas. Alfred was one of those who was gassed and was sent to hospital for treatment, returning to the trenches in early September.
During the Battle of Cambrai in early October, there was a push to capture the village of Cagnocles. On 9 October, he was a member of a patrol, under Captain Pearson, which went to reconnoitre the high ground overlooking the village, but none of them returned. As the rest pushed forward they were met with intense machine gun fire and the casualty rate was high. The 7th Battalion lost 4 officers killed and 2 wounded, with 85 other ranks killed or wounded, of which 19 year old Alfred was one.
The following day the action was successful and they captured the village, along with 11 prisoners and 13 machine guns.
Alfred is buried in Cagnoncles Communal Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
His mother, Mrs Kate Baines, 1 Pictons Bridge, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead, Herts., ordered his headstone inscription: "OUR LOSS, HIS GAIN". His mother received a war gratuity of £4 and pay owing of £4 19s 10d. His brother William served in the war but survived.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk. www.hemelheroes.com., www.hemelatwar.org.
