Name
Aubrey George Flowers
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
24/04/1916
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
A/40220
Saskatchewan Regiment
5th Canadian Infantry Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 18 - 26 - 28.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Abbots Langley Village Memorial, St. Lawrence Church Memorial, Abbots Langley
Biography
Aubrey Flowers emigrated to Canada from Southampton on the Cunard Liner SS “Ascania” on 2nd May 1912, landing at Quebec and then travelling to Montreal. The Outgoing Passenger Records at the National Archives listed an A.H Chalk (presumably Harry) on the same ship. Both men had lived in Asylum Road (today College Road) in Troley Bottom. John Owen from this area in the village also emigrated to Canada and all three served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF).
Aubrey was born in 1893, and during his early life he lived with his parents William and Elizabeth at The Model Cottages, Troley Bottom before moving to 6 Asylum Terrace, Asylum Road, where the family were registered in the 1911 Census. His father had been an Attendant at the Asylum but later worked as a Labourer for the County Council. Aubrey was the third of five sons and three daughters. His brothers Leonard and Harry served during the Great War and both survived, but his brother in law, Arthur Kimble, who had married his sister Agnes, died of wounds received at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in April 1915.
In 1911 Aubrey worked as a Cowman on the farm at the Asylum at Leavesden. Times were hard working on the land in Britain in the early twentieth century, and emigration to Canada was an attractive option. After arriving in Canada in 1912 Aubrey travelled westward to the Prairies and on 9th January 1915 he joined the Canadian Army at Humboldt, a stagecoach depot on the Carlton Trail in Saskatchewan. At enlistment he gave his occupation as a farmer, and his next of kin as Elizabeth Flowers of Abbots Langley.
In response to requests from Britain, more and more Canadian troops were transported to Europe, and it is uncertain when Aubrey arrived on the Western Front, but on 6th November 1915 the Herts Advertiser reported Aubrey Flowers as wounded. In early 1916 units of the CEF were in the trenches south of Ypres in Belgium. Aubrey was killed in action on Easter Monday, 24 April 1916.
News of his death was recorded in the Abbots Langley Parish Magazine in June 1916
“It is with great regret that we add another name to our list of those who have given their lives for their Country. Aubrey Flowers was killed in action in France (sic) on April 24th. Aubrey Flowers, who was 23 years of age, was a very quiet restrained disposition. He with three or four friends went out to Canada a few years back where he was doing well. At the outbreak of war he came home with the Canadian Contingent, and has now given his life for his country. His brother in law, Arthur Kimble, was killed just a year ago. The sympathies of all of us are with his father and mother and family. He was the first baby baptised by the Vicar when he came to Abbots Langley.”
Aubrey Flowers was commemorated on the Abbots Langley War Memorial, and on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium.
Acknowledgments
Roger Yapp - www.backtothefront.org
