13789 Pte Alfred James Blythe, 11th Battalion, Essex Regiment

13789 Private Alfred James Blythe of the 11th Battalion, Essex Regiment, was killed in action on the 26th September 1915, the second day of the Battle of Loos. He was one of 2,471 British soldiers to die on this day.

Alfred has connections with a village in England that I am very familiar with: Chailey, in what is now East Sussex. I have researched the parishioners of Chailey during WW1 and also some of the soldiers who spent time recuperating at two auxiliary hospitals there. Those stories are told on a separate site: Chailey 1914-1918. Alfred though, is not one of the men mentioned on that site. He spent time at Chailey Heritage but by the time the First World War began he'd been away from the village for five years. This is his story.

A brief - and sometimes difficult to read - entry in the Chailey Heritage ledger records that Alfred was born on 21 April 1891 and lived at 88 Faraday Street in Walworth. His father had died in late 1902 or early 1903 and by the time Alfred entered Chailey Heritage on 2nd September 1905, his mother had remarried and become Mrs Rosina Cole. She was employed in 'laundry work'.

Alfred was a pupil at the Greencoat School in Camberwell Green and was "afflicted with tubercular disease of the foot and a hernia." Alfred's fees at Chailey Heritage were paid for in part by the London County Council and in part from the Crippled Children's Training Society. After nearly four years at Chailey Alfred left the Heritage on 24th May 1909, a post having been found for him at Messrs. Angus (which is possibly a mis-spelling), Roller Top Desk Makers in Finsbury. He was certainly still there in 1913, by which time his wages had risen to 13 shillings a week.

A later entry in the Heritage ledger states that Alfred 'joined Kitchener's Army'. There are only two subsequent entries. The first: 'reported missing' and the second, in blue crayon, 'killed at Loos'.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records that Alfred was a private in the 11th Battalion of the Essex Regiment and died on 26th Sept 1915. It adds the additional information that he was 24 years old and the son of Mrs Rosina Cole of 66, Liverpool Street, Walworth Road, London. He is commemorated on the Loos Memorial.

Alfred's army number indicates that he joined the Essex Regiment in September 1914, probably around the 13th or 14th of that month. He enlisted at Camberwell. His arrival date in France - 30th August 1915 - ties in nicely with the arrival date of the 11th Essex and so we can pretty safely assume that he was an original member of that battalion and sailed to France with the battalion and not as part of a draft.

The 11th Essex was a K3 battalion formed at Warley in September 1914. It initially moved to Shoreham as part of the 71st Bde in the 24th Division, then to Brighton in Jan 1915. It moved back to Shoreham in March 1915 before heading for Blackdown in June 1915. The next significant date on the battalion's calendar is its move overseas on 30th August. The 71st Bde later transferred to the (regular) 6th Division but this was in October 1915 and Alfred had already been killed by this time.

The 24th Division was rushed hurriedly into the Battle of Loos and sustained heavy casualties. Both it and the 21st Division which suffered a similar fate, were later severely and unjustifiably criticised for their performance at Loos.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (MIC, 1901 census)
Army Ancestry
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission

My grateful thanks to Ian Seccombe of Chailey for alerting me to Alfred Blythe and for providing the details recorded in the Chailey Heritage archives.