Pte 23041 Albert John Hurrell

• Age: 27
• From: Seacombe, Cheshire
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 20th Btn
• K.I.A Sunday 30th July 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.

Albert (Alby) John Hurrell was born on about 10th December 1887 in Seacombe, Cheshire the son of George Stephen Hurrell and his wife Elizabeth (née Thomas) who were born in Wales. His father was born in Pembroke Dock, and his mother in Aberystwyth, where they married on the 4th May 1861(family tree). They had 14 children. Alby, the youngest son, was born a twin, but sadly his twin William died in infancy, as did two other children, Sarah Annie and Bertha Daisy. 

The family lived at 6 Shaw Street, Seacombe at the time of the 1891 census.

Albert’s father George was a ships rigger and was 48 at the time as was his mother Elizabeth. The 3 year old Albert had an older brother called Thomas who was 15 and two sisters Mary aged 11 and Sarah aged 8. He also had older siblings who weren’t living at home: John, Hannah, George, Emily, James, Ella and a younger sister Henrietta.

Albert was educated at Poulton Street School. 

At the time of the 1901 census the family were living in 12 rooms with Albert’s older sister Hannah and her husband and 6 children at 152 Wheatland Lane, Seacombe. Albert’s parents are living there; his father is 59 years of age and is a ship’s rigger. Albert is 13 and his sister Emily aged 9 is declared along with twelve boarders.  

He was mentioned in a newspaper notice in 1906 as working as a barman in the Birkenhead Arms in Chester Street, the licensed premises of his brother James Ross.

Albert’s mother Elizabeth died aged 65 just before the 1911 census, upon which retired George appears as a 68 widower, still living with his married daughter Hannah Pohl. His brother Thomas died in 1911, sister Sarah died in 1915 and sister Hannah in 1918. 

Liverpool Courier and Commercial Advertiser - Wednesday 15 March 1911 

Dock Labourer Killed.  

Thomas Stephen Hurrell, a dock labourer of Cumberland-place, Birkenhead, died in the Borough Hospital on Monday night from a fracture of the skull, sustained three hours earlier. Hurrell with others was loading the steamer Crewe Hall with iron rails, when one slipped from the hoist, and after striking the side of the ship caught him in the face, inflicting a terrible wound. 

In 1911 Alby is 23, a waiter, living in Ethel Road, Seacombe. He was working as a waiter on the Cunard Line ship, the S.S.Ivernia which sailed regularly between Liverpool and Boston. (the ship, which was being used as troop transport, was torpedoed and sunk in 1917 with the loss of 36 crew and 84 troops).

He is found in August 1912, aged 24, on the Laconia, another Cunard ship, recently built, which was also torpedoed and sunk, in February 1917.

He enlisted on the 10th November 1914 at Liverpool, joining the 20th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 23041. He gave his age as 26 years and 335 days. He is five feet six and a quarter inches tall, weighed 130lbs and had a 35 and a half inch chest. He had a fresh complexion, brown eyes and brown hair and declared his religion as Church of England. He gave as next of kin his father at 43 Byerley Street in Seacombe. 

Formed in November 1914 the 20^th Battalion were originally billeted at Tournament Hall, Knotty Ash before on 29^th January 1915 they moved to the hutted accommodation purposely built at Lord Derby’s estate at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 20th Battalion alongside the other three Pals battalions left Liverpool via Prescot Station for further training at Belton Park, Grantham. They remained here until September 1915 when they reached Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain. He arrived in France on 7^th November 1915.

Whilst in training he asked for dispensation to marry his fiancée Ruby Vivia Cabot who was a 24 year old dressmaker. There’s several letters of confirmation of intent in his file so he was given permission and the couple married on 07th March 1915 at St Pauls in Seacombe. Albert was a 27 year old Private in the 20/KLR of 19 Clarence Rd, father George a ships rigger, whilst Ruby was aged 25 of 35 Edith Rd, father John deceased. 

In one of the letters, his brother James vouches that Alby had kept company with Miss Ruby Cabot for three years and had been engaged for 12 months.  In 1911 Ruby, 21, born in St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands, and a dressmaker, lived with her family in Edith Road, Seacombe, which was just around the corner from where Alby was living in 1911. 

He was killed in action on the 30^th July 1916 at the village of Guillemont, France, during the Somme Offensive.

The 20^th King’s Battalion Diary records:

“At 4.45am prompt the attack was launched. Unfortunately, a thick mist prevailed and it was impossible to see more than 10 yards ahead. This continued until about 6 o’clock when it lifted slightly, but it was still too hazy and impossible to see what was happening 100 yards ahead. This being so, it was not surprising to find that the attacking waves were experiencing great difficulty in maintaining connection.”

At 6am, Lt. RE Melly, No.1 Company, reported that his men had taken the German Maltz Horn trench.

At 6.30am, 2/Lt. CP Moore reported that he had 150 men, 4 Stokes Mortars and 2 Lewis Guns, but he was the only officer. He also said that due to the fog, both his “flanks were in the air” i.e. he was not in contact with neighbouring troops.

At 9.10am, Moore was still not in contact at his flanks, and now he had only 75 men, he had sent out 2 patrols and neither not returned. Later Moore established communication with the French on his right.

Around 10.00am, 2/Lt Musker reported that he had just over a company with him, but his left flank was suffering from German machine gun fire. Later he reported that he had over 30 casualties from the machine gun fire. His flanks were also “in the air”. No contact was made with this party until the remnants returned around 9.30pm, all runners sent were killed or missing. The War Diary states that this group had: ”held the ground won all day, and this permitted the consolidation of the ground won on the Maltz Horn ridge with little interference from the enemy”.

Relief for 20/Kings had been planned for 11.00pm, but it was 5.00am on the 31st July before it took place, ending a tragic day for the Liverpool Pals.

Casualties for 20^th Battalion were 16 Officers and 357 Other Ranks

When darkness fell on the battlefield the 30^th Division held a line from the railway on the eastern side of Trones Wood , southwards and including Arrow Head Copse, to east of Maltz Horn Farm. On this line the division was relieved by the 55^th Division during the early hours of the 31^st July. 

The events of 30^th July 1916 were regarded at the time as Liverpool’s blackest day. There follows an extract from The History of the 89^th Brigade written by Brigadier General Ferdinand Stanley which gives an indication of the events of the day.

Guillemont

Well the hour to advance came, and of all bad luck in the world it was a thick fog; so thick that you couldn’t see more than about ten yards. It was next to impossible to delay the attack – it was much too big an operation- so forward they had to go. It will give some idea when I say that on one flank we had to go 1,750 yards over big rolling country. Everyone knows what it is like to cross enclosed country which you know really well in a fog and how easy it is to lose your way. Therefore, imagine these rolling hills, with no landmarks and absolutely unknown to anyone. Is it surprising that people lost their way and lost touch with those next to them? As a matter of fact, it was wonderful the way in which many men found their way right to the place we wanted to get to. But as a connected attack it was impossible.

The fog was intense it was practically impossible to keep direction and parties got split up. Owing to the heavy shelling all the Bosches had left their main trenches and were lying out in the open with snipers and machine guns in shell holes, so of course our fellows were the most easy prey.

It is so awfully sad now going about and finding so many splendid fellows gone. 

The Wallasey News ran a report following news of Albert's death:

Only Just Married

Mrs. E. Fishwick, of 19, Clarence Road, Seacombe, has received the sad intelligence that her brother, Private A. Hurrell, of the King’s Liverpool Regiment, has been killed in action in the great “push” on July 30th . Private Hurrell was well-known in Seacombe, as he lived here all his life, and had attended St. Paul’s and Riverside Council Schools. He was 27 years of age, and had married just before going away, residing with his wife in Birkenhead. He had been employed as a barman in Messrs. Threlfall’s Brewery Company, and latterly had been in a well-known hostelry in London Road. Liverpool. General regret will be felt at the death of this promising young man, and the sympathy of all his many friends will be tendered to his young widow and other relatives. 

Further details were posted in the Birkenhead News on 26th August 1916  

Mrs. Hurrell, of 19,Jessamine-road, Tranmere, has received intimation of the death in action of her husband, Private Albert Hurrell, who received a fatal wound on the 30th July 

Also in the Liverpool Daily Post on 28th August 1916  

HURRELL—July 30, killed in action, aged 27 years. Private A. (Alby Hurrell (Pals), youngest son of George Hurrell, of Seacombe. (Fondly remembered by Aunt and Cousins at Bootle.)  

Albert’s name also appeared in the list of K.L.R. Killed published in the Liverpool Post & Mercury on 09th September 1916.  

 King’s (Liverpools) - Hurrell, 23041, A. (Seacombe); 

Alby's body was not recovered or was subsequently lost as he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916. 

On 01st August 1932 the Prince of Wales and the President of France inaugurated the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy. The inscription reads: “Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.”

He earned his three medals, which were issued in the name of Harrell and returned for adjustment. 

Ruby received his Army pay and a War Gratuity of £7-10s and was awarded a pension of 10/- a week from February 1917, then living at 52 Sea Road, Egremont.

In the Liverpool Echo, on 30th July 1917 under the heading Lost At The Battle of Guillemont, his wife paid tribute to Albert:

“In memory of my dearly-beloved husband, Albert John Hurrell (Liverpool Pals), killed in action July 30, 1916. ‘Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away.’”

Ruby was notified in November 1916 there were no personal belongings of Alby’s to be sent, but in February 1918 she received his identity disc.

Alby was also remembered on the second anniversary of his death in 1918, which contained the Pals motto:

“In ever-loving memory of my dearly-loved husband, Albert Hurrell (Liverpool Pals), killed in action July 30, 1916.  Sans changer.”

His nephew, Hannah’s son Frederick Pohl, served in Egypt and France as a driver with the A.S.C. and later served  with the 13th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment. He died of wounds on 29th March 1918, aged 22. Frederick now rests in Namps au Val British Cemetery, Somme. His mother Hannah died in December that year. 

In his service record, in 1919 his widow Ruby provided details of his closest next of kin who were listed as  his father George, at 63 Red Rock Street, Liverpool,  his brothers James and John (who lived in Canada) and his sisters Emily, Mary, Ella and Henrietta. 

His father died in Liverpool later that year, aged 76. 

It is not known what became of Ruby, as she is not found on any future marriage or death records in England.  In early 1920 a Mrs. R. V. Hurrell, age 30, sailed from Southampton to Cape Town. No further records have been found. 

Not long after arriving in Cape Town, on the 2nd February, she married 32 year old police constable William Robert Lovett. On the 1911 Census he appears in a South Africa with the 24th Coy RAMC, aged 24 born in Birmingham. 

A further passenger record after WW2 sees Ruby returning to South Africa, she is aboard the Blue Funnel Line SS “Antenor” leaving Liverpool on the 20th Sept 1947. Her residence at the time was 12 Eaton Ave, Wallasey. William R. Lovett died aged 70 on the 29th Dec 1957 in the City Hospital, Cape Town and was buried on the 2nd Jan 1958 at Maitland Cemetery. 

Alby's name is also on commemorated on the following Memorials:

Roll of Honour on the Wallasey War Memorial which is situated in Victoria Community Hospital, Liscard, Wallasey

Men of Birkenhead Cenotaph.

We currently have no further information on Albert John Hurrell. If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.