AveningHistory
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Private: 5th Battalion Canadian Mounted Rifles
Alfred William was born at Aston Farm Cottages on
Saturday the 20th of October 1894, his birth being
registered by his grandfather in Tetbury thirteen days later.
He was baptised at the Holy Cross Church, Avening on
Sunday the 5th of July 1896 and the entry in the Parish
Register described his mother, Sarah Ann Risby as a
"single woman". She was just 19 years old when she gave
birth to Alfred, having been born at Nags Head in 1875
and baptised the same year at Avening. She was the
daughter of Alfred Risby, born in Avening around 1840 and
his wife, Ellen Townsend who was a Cherington girl born
around 1834. Alfred and Ellen were married on Saturday
the 6th of December 1862, again at Holy Cross Church.
At the time of the 1891 census, the family were living at
Nags Head where Alfred was an agricultural labourer, but
some time before Alfred William's birth they had moved to
Aston Cottages. In the 1901 census, seven year old Alfred
William is shown living with his grandparents at Aston, his
grandfather's occupation being described as groom and
gardener. Despite lengthy searches, no sign can be found
of Sarah Ann in that census but we do know that she was
living in Weston-super-Mare, having given birth to a
daughter registered as Dorothy Agnes Fowles in April
1900. No record can be found of a marriage between
Sarah Ann and her husband, Herbert Fowles but they
went on to have a further three children, the youngest
being born in 1906.
For Alfred William, disaster struck in 1904 when his
grandfather died, aged 64. He was buried in Avening
Church cemetery. However, he continued to live at Aston
until January 1907 when his grandmother also passed
away, aged 73. She was also buried in Avening cemetery.
This brought some action from Sarah Ann who took Alfred
back to Weston-super-Mare. Unfortunately, his stepfather
wanted nothing to do with him and hence, he lived in
lodgings in Weston funded by charity.
Some time later in 1907 his plight came to the attention of
the National Children's Home (NCH), a charity similar to
Barnardos and he was assessed by a local pillar of society
on their behalf in December 1907. In the assessment
document, Sarah Ann is described as being "physically
delicate" and of "very weak character" and Alfred as being
"out of control" and likely to "enter into the Prison Class of
youths". NCH took Alfred under their protection and he
was moved to their London home in January 1908. Both
Barnardos and NCH had schemes where orphans and
children from deprived backgrounds were sent abroad to
Australia, Canada and other parts of the Commonwealth
to give them a better start in life. These children were
known as "Home Children" and on emigration to their new
country, were given both homes and work to go to. NCH
had a local representative who kept in touch with the child
and retained some of the wages earned until the child
reached 21, when the accumulated funds were given to
him in the hope that this would go towards setting him up
for life.
Alfred William became a "Home Child" and sailed from
Liverpool to Canada, arriving in March 1910, by then aged
15. He worked on farms in the Millgrove and Dundas
areas of Ontario. From copies of his letters to his NCH
agent, it appears that he had a happy life and he was far
from the dissolute child described in his 1907 assessment.
In 1914, he acknowledged his gratitude to the NCH by
making a donation to their funds and in December 1915
he asked that he be sent his accumulated funds after
making a further donation. His letter of that time said that
he was about to enlist in the Services and this he did on
the 17th of March 1916. He was a volunteer (conscription
didn't start in Canada until 1917) and joined initially the
129th Overseas Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary
Force.
At the date of his enlistment he was described as being 21
years and five months old, 5ft 3in (162cm) tall, with light
brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh, fair complexion. He
gave his religion as Methodist.
After basic training, he arrived in England on the SS
Olympic on the 30th of August 1916. We like to think that
during his brief spell in England, he was reunited with his
mother - certainly he altered his will to her benefit at some
time. He continued training until December when he was
transferred to the 60th Battalion in France or Belgium. On
the 16th of May 1917, he was transferred again, this time
to the 5th Battalion of the Canadian Mounted Rifles, part
of the 3rd Canadian Division.
By this time, apart from the stalemate of trench warfare,
the war wasn't going well for England. The submarine
battle against the merchant navy was being won by the
enemy and so a new effort to take the Belgian ports being
used by the Germans was planned. In September small
advances were made and General Haig felt that one more
push would break the German lines. Passchendaele
Ridge was the key to that success. British, Australian and
New Zealand divisions were much depleted by the
September battles and so, in October, Haig called upon
the Canadian Corps, under General Sir Arthur Currie. He
was reluctant to get involved but felt unable to refuse
Haig, predicting some 16,000 casualties.
It had rained every day since the 19th of October and on
the 26th, the first attack was made by the 3rd and 4th
Canadian Divisions. The assault was quickly bogged
down and they were forced to retreat to within 100 yards
of the starting point. A continuation of the offensive was to
be made on Tuesday the 30th of October and the 5th
Battalion of the Canadian Mounted Rifles, part of the 8th
Canadian Infantry Brigade, was to make an attack, with
other Canadian Brigades on their left and right. The attack
was to start at 5.50 am. The night had been fine and cool
as had the two preceding days and the shell-torn ground
had dried somewhat, enabling the men to pick their way
around the lips of the shell craters that were full of water.
Signalling would be done by Lucas lamp, runners, wire
and pigeons. The 5th Battalion's strength at the outset
was 25 Officers and 565 men. As was usual, the whole
attack was preceded by an artillery barrage and this
provoked a similar response from the enemy guns. The
troops left their trenches at 5.54 am and progress was
steady but slow but most of the objectives were taken by
the end of the day. Those on the 5th Battalion's flanks
were not so successful, leaving the 5th’s front exposed to
fire from three sides. They held out, however, until relieved
at 1.35 am the following morning.
Passchendaele was finally taken on the 6th of November,
but General Currie's prediction of heavy losses was well
founded and this was borne out by the 5th Battalion's
casualties. They lost, killed, missing or wounded, 400
officers and men during that one day, Alfred William being
one of those killed. He died ten days after his 23rd
birthday and was awarded posthumously the British Medal
and the Victory Medal, both being given to his mother on
the 10th of June 1922. He has no known grave but is
remembered on the Menin Gate and Rolls of Honour at
Millbrook and Hamilton High School. The War Memorial in
Avening Church and the tablet on the front of the
Memorial Hall now include his name.
We have been unable to locate any relatives. We are
grateful to Ken Scheffler of Hamilton, Ontario for bringing
Albert William to our attention (the search being
complicated by the fact that he was William Alfred in
Canada), to the local Millbrook newspaper, The
Flamborough Review, for their interest and assistance and
to the National Children's Home, now Action For Children,
for allowing us access to their database and records,
despite there being no family connections. His name will
be remembered at last in Avening.
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