Pte 300188 Albert Charles Bausor

• Age: 31
• From: Chelmsford, Essex
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• D.O.W Wednesday 1st May 1918
• Commemorated at: Esquelbecq Mil Cem
  Panel Ref: II.A.18

Albert Charles Bausor was born in 1886 in Chelmsford, the eldest of four children of the baker Charles Harris Bausor and Eliza Bausor (nee Praill). His father had been born in 1853 at Great Chesterford; his mother in 1847 in London. The couple had married in 1885.

Albert’s siblings, all Chelmsford-born, were Harry Praill Bausor (born on 10th September 1887, died in 1970), John Harris Bausor (born on 11th February 1889, died in 1969), and Thomas William Bausor (born in 1892, died in 1965).

Aged four, Albert was recorded by the 1891 census living with his father (a baker and corn dealer), mother and two younger brothers at 47 Duke Street in Chelmsford.

The 1901 census found 14 year-old Albert living with his parents and three younger brothers at the same address. Albert was a bread maker; his father a baker and shop keeper; while his brother Harry was an assistant in a stationer’s shop.

By 1911 the baker’s had been taken over by William Leonard Buxton. The census of that year found Albert’s unemployed father, his mother and two youngest brothers living at 55 Victoria Road in Chelmsford. Meanwhile Albert was living and working as a coachman in White Barn, Wootton in Oxfordfordshire.

Albert’s mother died in 1916 .That year Albert married Marjorie Wickens in the Bromley district of Kent; and his father died the following year.

Albert enlisted in Liverpool and originally served as 250534 in the Lancashire Hussars Yeomanry, and later as Private 300188 in No. 2 Company, 18th Battalion, The King's (Liverpool Regiment).

He died from shrapnel wounds to his left buttock and right shoulder at O.C.3 Australian Casualty Clearing Station at 3.40 am on 01st May 1918, aged 31.

Albert now rests at Esquelbecq Military Cemetery in Nord, France, near the Belgian frontier, 24 kilometres north of Hazebrouck.

The cemetery was opened in April 1918 during the early stages of the German offensive in Flanders, when the 2nd Canadian and 3rd Australian Casualty Clearing Stations came to Esquelbecq. It was closed in September 1918, although one French grave was added in 1919 and one British soldier from 1916 was added later from an isolated site.

The cemetery was used again during the Second World War, mainly for the burial of those killed during the German advance of May 1940 and the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force to Dunkirk.

Esquelbecq Military Cemetery contains 578 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and 47 from the Second World War. There are also 11 French and German burials.

The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

On 17th May 1918 the Essex Weekly News reported:

“Pte. A. C. Bausor, King’s Liverpool Regt., brother of Mr. J. H. Bausor, 55 Victoria-rd., Chelmsford died of wounds on May 1.”

The day’s Essex County Chronicle carried a similar report:

“Mr. J. H. Bausor, of 55 Victoria Road, Chelmsford, has received official notification that his brother, Pt. A. C, Bausor, King’s Liverpool Regt., has died of wounds in France, on the 1st inst.”

Albert’s brother Sergeant Harry Praill Bausor was taken prisoner by the Germans on 21st March 1918 while serving with the Essex Regiment.

The 1918 register of electors listed Albert’s brother John Harris Bausor still at 55 Victoria Road. Five years later he married Albert’s widow. She eventually died in 1972.

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