Name
Alfred Skipp
1878
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
30/09/1915
37
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
16789
Princess Charlotte of Wales’ (Royal Berkshire) Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LAVENTIE MILITARY CEMETERY, LA GORGUE
I. C. 21.
France
Headstone Inscription
HE FOUGHT A GOOD FIGHT HE FINISHED HIS COURSE
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Reed Memorial, Not on the Buckland & Chipping Memorial
Pre War
Alfred Skipp was born in 1878 in Reed, Hertfordshire, the son of Henry and Ann Skipp, and was baptised at St Andrew's Church, Buckland, Herts on 19 August 1883.
On the 1881 and 1891 Censuses the family were living in Buckland, Herts where his father was working as an agricultural labourer.
He joined the Royal Berkshire Regiment in 1897 and served under reg. no. 4852 but by the 1901 Census he was back living with his parents in Baldock Road, Aspenden, Herts and was described as an army pensioner.
He married Alice Maria Gould on 25 July 1903 at St Mary the Virgin, Little Ilford, Essex . He worked as a dock labourer and had six children, Gladys (1903), William (1904), Kathleen (1906), Charles (1910), Cecil (1913), and Alice (1915). On the 1911 Census they were living at 36 Dock Street, Southampton
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of war in August 1914 he joined the Merchant Service as a Trimmer, and for a month did duty with the armed Merchant Cruiser "Oceanic" (previously White Star Line) which was wrecked off the north coast of Scotland on 29 September the same year, when it ran aground off the island of Foula, Shetland Isles, due to a navigational error and a gale.
In February 1915 he re-joined the Royal Berkshire Regiment, serving in France from 18 March 1915. He saw much severe fighting and was seriously wounded at Loos. Once recovered he returned to the Front, and was captured. He died whilst a prisoner of war in Germany on 30 September 1916, aged 37. His body was exhumed at the end of the war and re-interred in Laventie Military Cemetery, La Gorgue, France.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £3 3s 2d. She also received a pension of £1 6s 6d a week for herself and her six children.
He was eligible for the 1914 Naval Star as well as the 1914-15 Star, Victory Medal and British War Medal.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Malcolm Lennox
