2747 PRIVATE ALBERT EDWARD WOOLNOUGH
1/4TH BATTALION SUFFOLK REGIMENT
TERRITORIAL FORCE
KILLED IN ACTION
30TH AUGUST 1916
AGE 19 YEARS
Albert Woolnough is the last of those named on the Halesworth War Memorial which had, in 1921, been dedicated to the men of the town who had lost their lives during the Great War, 1914-18. At the time of his death he was one of several other local lads who had yet to reach manhood, still being in his teenage years. Young Albert was born during the second quarter of 1897, the seventh of sixteen children, two of whom died in their early years, from the marriage of Edward, a domestic gardener, and his wife Agnes (née Bayles). After their marriage they with their ever-growing family continued living in their six-room house at 59 London Road, Halesworth. At the time of the 1911 census Albert, then aged just thirteen years, left school and was employed as an errand boy for a local jeweller. From information reported in his obituary, published in the Lamberts Almanack for 1916, it appears that he had later found a position as an apprentice with Smith and Sons at the East Suffolk Carriage and Motor Works in Bridge Street. In this highly sought after apprenticeship he may well have been helped by his older brother Frank who had been in the employ of the company for some time.
After the outbreak of World War One in August 1914 and in the months that followed many men from the town and district volunteered to serve in the country’s armed forces. Their numbers included several who were mere boys and others whose fighting days were well behind them. Many of these older men would, from early 1915, go on to serve in the 3rd Battalion of the Suffolk Volunteers which had been a Great War forerunner of the Home Guard of World War Two. Among the younger townsmen was Albert, whose name was included in a list of thirty-six men published in the Halesworth Times newspaper of 17th November 1914, whom the local recruiting Sergeant, F Lambert, had enlisted during the previous week. Out of those volunteers thirty listed their preference to be allowed to serve with the local Territorials of the 4th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, Albert being one. After carrying out the basic administration, the men would have been marched to the town’s railway station to begin the first part of their journey, to Ipswich. Here they would have been medically examined and documented. On being accepted Albert was allocated his regimental number of 2747 with the rank of a Private Soldier. As with many other fatal casualties of the Great War, very little information of his service survives, although one remaining source, the previously mentioned obituary notice published in the Lamberts Almanack, shows that, unlike many of his contempories, he had declared his true age of seventeen years on his enlistment. This then caused the military authorities to keep him, in this country, along with many other under-age young men, until they reached the regulation age of nineteen years for overseas service. After completing his training, it appears that he was billeted in various parts of the east and southern parts of the country. A further extract from his obituary shows that Albert joined the 4th Suffolks in France a little over a month prior to him being killed in action, on 30th August 1916. A check of the battalion’s war diary for that period shows that during the early morning of 22nd July they were relieved from the front line in the area of Mametz Wood by troops of the Black Watch. After moving to the rear to rest and re-equip, they were joined by a party of over two hundred and eighty reinforcements. It is likely that Albert was one of these. Shortly after this, while close to the French town of Dernancourt, on 1st August 1916 the troops of the Suffolk Regiment endeavoured to celebrate a very important day in the regiment’s calendar being Minden Day. This anniversary, which continues to be celebrated right up to the present day by previous members of the Suffolk Regiment and their successors, celebrates the Battle of Minden, fought during the Seven Years War of the mid 1700s, when the old 12th of Foot, later the Suffolk Regiment, had, along with several other British Regiments, been awarded the ‘Battle of Minden’ as an honour to be proudly displayed on their regimental colours.
After a short fourteen-day period of rest and training for the newly arrived replacements, the battalion, from 14th August, spent a further six days in the front line. Here they mounted a successful attack against the German line in the early hours of 18th August. The war diary relates that, after gaining entry into the enemy’s trench, they were forced to retire as neither of their flanking British battalions had been able to keep up with the speed of their advance. This then left both of their flanks exposed to possible German infiltration. A positive note in the diary mentions that the men of the new reinforcements, no doubt including Albert, had conducted themselves admirably during the attack. The day following this action, the 4th Suffolks were relieved by the 9th Scottish Rifles and were pulled back to the rear. On 30th August 1916, the day of Albert’s reported death, the 4th Suffolks, who had returned into the front line two days previously had, over the following days, been suffering from some very heavy shell fire from the German Artillery. For a short period this constant barrage ceased, as at 6.30am on the morning of the 30th, the Suffolks fought off a strong bombing (grenade) attack on their section of the line, carried out by the German infantry. As they were driven back, the enemy’s artillery once again opened fire causing more death and destruction. Sadly young Albert and several of his comrades were reported as missing with their remains never being identified, it is only possible to say that he may have been killed at any time over those few days, with Albert now being remembered on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing on the Somme, France.
After his death, Edward, his father, who had been nominated as his son’s next of kin, received two war gratuity payments totalling £11.6s.4d (£11.32p), as well as from 6th November 1918, a small pension of 5s 0d (25p) per week. As well as these financial payments he would also have been entitled to claim his son’s medal awards of the British War and Victory medal pair, with his named bronze memorial plaque and scroll.
The location of these is not known.
The magnificent Thiepval Memorial which bears the
names of over seventy-two thousand, three hundred names
to men with no known grave, including Albert shown below.
