3/7710 Pte Alfred Samuel Hordle, 1st Bn, Dorsetshire Regt

I was travelling yesterday and therefore had no opportunity to update this blog.

3/7710 Private Alfred Samuel Hordle of the 1st Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment, was killed in action on the 25th November 1914. His number indicates that he joined the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battlion of the Dorsetshire Regiment and this is confirmed by his partial service record which survives in the WO 363 series at the National Archives.

Alfred joined the 3rd Battalion on the 21st August 1914. He was 36 years old, was a serving member of the National Reserve and already had prior service with the 3rd Battalion. He was a married man and was living in Poole, Dorset. Alfred was five feet five inches tall, had a fresh complexion, hazel eyes and brown hair.

Alfred's wife is recorded as Ellen Isabella Hordle although by the time Alfred's British War and Victory medals were sent to her in 1921, she had re-married and her surname was Foot. This information is also included on Alfred's entry in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's register. Ellen had previously received his 1914 Star (in 1919 when she was still Ellen Hordle) and also, in April 1915, Princess Mary's gift to the troops. Read about the history of the Princess Mary tin here.

Alfred was posted to the 1st Battalion on the 23rd October 1914 sailed for France the same day. He was killed just over a month later. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate at Ypres.

When Ellen Hordle lost her husband she also lost her income and Alfred's surviving papers bear testimony to the obvious hardships that she suffered. There is a note in his files dated June 1915 which states that she was in distressed circumstances, and a later appeal, undated and subsequently fire-damaged which gives a little more detail. It states that Ellen (aged 39) was receiving a pension of ten shillings a week, that she was crippled and also extremely deaf and therefore unable to earn a living for herself. The recommendation, signed by the recruiting officer at Poole, was that she should be receiving a pension of at least one pound per week and that her lameness was likely to get worse rather than better. There is no record on file as to whether Ellen Hordle's appeal was successful.

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

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (MIC)
Army Ancestry
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in The Great War