Name
Albert Henry Roots
1886
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
18/11/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Sergeant
L/8432
"The Queens" Royal West Surrey Regiment.
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star (with Clasp & Roses), British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
STUMP ROAD CEMETERY, GRANDCOURT
A. 29.
France
Headstone Inscription
He has no family inscription on his Headstone.
UK & Other Memorials
Cheshunt Town Memorial
Pre War
Albert Henry Roots was born in 1886, in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, son of Henry Roots and Christina Roots (nee Sheeran). One of three children.
His father Henry Roots died in Ponders End, Middx, in 1890, aged 30.
1891 Census records Albert as Henry A. Roots, aged 5, living with his widowed mother, sisters Christina (8) and Gladys (1) in, Alma Road, Enfield, Middx. His aunt Harriet Sheeran is living with the family, and they have a boarder, James Glending.
1901 Census records Albert again as Henry, aged 15, his occupation is given as House Boy/Groom, for the Great Eastern Railway Company, living with his widowed mother and sisters Christina and Gladys in, Rowlands Fields, Cheshunt, Herts.
His mother Christina remarried in August 1902, to John Daly, the marriage was registered in Edmonton.
Albert enlisted in the 4th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment Militia for six years, on 18th March 1905, aged 19, and issued with the service number 5354. Transferring to the Regular Army on 16th June 1905, and posted to “The Queens” Royal West Surry Regiment with the service number L/8432. On home service duties until November 1906, when he and his Battalion were posted to India, returning home in February 1910.
1911 Census records Albert aged 25, single, a Private serving with the 1st Battalion, “The Queens” Royal West Surrey Regiment (RWSR), stationed at Warley Barrack’s, Warley, Brentwood, Essex.
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of war Albert was a serving soldier stationed at Bordon Camp, in Hampshire, still with the 1st Battalion, RWS Regiment, where they were mobilized for war service. They arrived at Le Havre, France on 13th August 1914, seeing action on the Western Front. Albert returned home in January 1915, until June 1916, when he returned to France joining the 8th Battalion, in the field. He was promoted from Acting Corporal to Sergeant in July 1916 and transferred to the 7th Battalion. He was wounded in September 1916.
Albert was Killed in Action on 18th November 1916, He is buried in the Stump Road Cemetery, Grandcourt, France. Grave Ref: A. 29.
Additional Information
His mother Mrs Christina Daly received a Dependents Pension of 3/6 a week from 22nd January 1918, and his effects of £16-7s-6d, pay owing and his war gratuity of £16.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Jonty Wild
