Name
Albert Lewis (Bert) Youngs
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
24/04/1945
27
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
5989945
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment
1st Bn. The Hertfordshire Regt.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Khayat Beach War Cemetery
B. C. 3.
Israel and Palestine (including Gaza)
Headstone Inscription
AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN AND IN THE MORNING WE WILL REMEMBER, DEAREST
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St. Mark’s Church Memorial, Hitchin, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
He was born in Devonshire but had worked for Messrs T. Brooker & Sons of Hitchin before being called up as a Territorial at the beginning of the war. He was in the 1st Battalion of the Regiment and his Service Number was 5989945.
He had been due to go to the Middle East with the ill-fated 18th (Eastern) Division which ended up in Singapore having been diverted from the Middle East. Virtually the whole of the Division was taken prisoner by the Japanese.
Shortly after embarkation, Bert developed a double hernia and was taken off the ship and hospitalised in Ipswich. Later, he served in Gibraltar and in North Africa where he was wounded in the throat. After recovering, he served in Italy.
Towards the end of the war he was stationed in Palestine (now Israel) and was killed as a result of an accident on a firing range. At the time he was in 4 Company and sustained a gunshot wound on the left side of his chest. A large number of soldiers from his unit attended the funeral and he was buried with full military honours.
He is buried in Khayat Beach Cemetery Haifa Israel in Plot B, Row C, Grave 3. He lived with his wife Isabell at 34, Lancaster Ave, Hitchin. His hometown, where his parents William and Mabel Youngs lived, was Bideford in Devon.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Mrs I. Shepherd - his wife at that time, War Office Effects Form lOOT, Herts Pictorial dated 8th May 1945
