Name
Alan Richard Blunden
1882
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
14/09/1914
34
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
6273
Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star (with Clasp & Roses), British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LA FERTE-SOUS-JOUARRE MEMORIAL
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Not on Shenley Memorial
Pre War
Alan Richard Blunden was born in 1882 in Shenley, nr Barnet, Herts, the son of Jacob and Mary Ann Blunden and one of five children.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at Harris Lane, Shenley, where his father was a Police Constable. His parents were living in Chesterton, Cambridge in 1901 but Alan was not with them. His service number of 6273 suggests he enlisted with the army before May 1901, but served his time and was again living with his family at 58 Thoday Street, Mill Road, Cambridge in 1911 and working as a market gardener. His father died later the same year and his mother in 1915.
Wartime Service
It is likely that Alan was a reservist at the outbreak of war (see above) and was mobilised, arriving in La Havre, France on 21 August 1914.
Alan was killed in action on 14 September 1914, aged 34, possibly at the Battle of the Aisne. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the La-Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial, France.
Additional Information
A war gratuity of £5 and pay owing of £2 9s 6d was divided equally between his four siblings.
His younger brother, Walter, also served during the war as Gunner (17783), 37th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery and survived the war.
Hi is also commemorated on his parents' grave at Mill Road Cemetery, Cambridge,
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
millroadcemetery.org.uk
