Name
Albert Edward Gurdler (MM)
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/03/1918
29
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
5759
Prince of Wales’s Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians)
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Military Medal
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
POZIERES MEMORIAL
Panel 78
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Rickmansworth Urban District Memorial,
St. Peter's C & E Primary School Memorial, Mill End
Pre War
Albert was born in Rickmansworth on the 14th of January 1893 and baptised there on the 23rd of April 1897. His parents were Henry, a Labourer, and Sarah Ann (nee Miles) Gurdler.
In 1901 they were living Uxbridge Road, Rickmansworth, with six children. In 1911 Albert, age 22, was a General Labourer boarding with William John Picton and family in Church Lane, Mill End, along with his son William Dennis Gurdler age under 1, born in Mill End.
No marriage for Albert, or birth registration for his son, have been found.
Recorded as enlisting in Watford.
Wartime Service
Formerly No 6584 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment. Entered France on 11 Nov 1914
When he died Albert was on detachment with the 47th Trench Mortar Battery. The 7th Leinster’s was raised at Fermoy in October 1914 as part of Kitchener’s Second New Army. They landed Le Havre 18th of December 1914 and served on the Western Front.
Actions included the Battles of Guillemont and Ginchy in 1915, Messines and Langemark in 1917, while in 1918 the Battalion took very heavy casualties on the Somme. Albert was killed during the Battle of St Quentin in the first phase of the German Spring Offensive, Operation Michael. This entailed an attack along the whole front from the river Oise at Choiny to the river Sensee at Arras ie the Somme Sector. VII Corps was on a 14,000 yard front stretching from Gouzeucourt to Epehy and Ronnssoy and Albert died during heavy shelling.
Some time earlier Albert had been awarded the Military Medal but the circumstances have not been traced.
Additional Information
After his death the army paid monies due to Albert to his father, Henry.
Three of Albert's brothers also died in the war, James on the 4th of September 1916, William on the 28th of March 1918, and Horace on the 12th of November 1918.
Acknowledgments
Tanya Britton, Mike Collins, Malcolm Lennox
