Name
Albert Rawlinson
1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
07/07/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Rifleman
14663
Royal Fusiliers *1
9th (County of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 8 C 9 A and 16 A.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Sawbridgeworth Town Memorial, Great St Mary’s Church Memorial, Sawbridgeworth, Not on the Bishop's Stortford memorials
Pre War
Albert Rawlinson was born in 1893 in Lindsell, Dunmow, Essex in to Hezekiah and Jesse Rawlinson and they were living there on the 1901 Census, residing at Porridge Hall, where his father was a stockman on a farm. By the 1911 Census, Albert had moved out and was working as pantry boy domestic servant at 37 Princes Gate, London, SW, the home of Frederick Strickland-Constable and his family.
Wartime Service
He enlisted in Frome and served with the 9th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers in France from 8 December 1915. In July 1916 the Battalion was heavily involved in the fighting on the Somme, and on the evening of the 7th July, the 9th Battalion were involved in an attack on Ovillers. Official history of the battalion recounts the massacre that took place, with every officer of the 8th Battalion and the majority of officers of the 9th Battalion being reported as either killed, wounded or missing. Of the two Battalions, only 180 men remained alive at the end of the fighting on the 7th July. Many killed by machine gun fire coming from Prussian positions to the North of Ovillers.
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £4 10s and pay owing of £4 17s 3d. Sometimes the regimental number is prefixed with GS/.
*1 Probably more correctly (County of London) Bn. London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s Rifles).
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild
