Pte 26619 Alfred Stanley Lumb

• Age: 19
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• K.I.A Wednesday 12th July 1916
• Commemorated at: Thiepval Memorial
  Panel Ref: P&F1D8B &8 C.

Alfred Stanley Lumb was born in Liverpool in 1897, the son of George Patrick Lumb and Annie (nee Dutton), both born in Liverpool, who married inSt Cyprian's Church, Edge-Hill in 1891.  They had six children, one of whom died in infancy.  Alfred had older siblings George John Leslie, Bertha, and Ronald, and a younger brother Richard Eric.

In 1901 the family is living at 90 Edgeware St, Edge Hill.

The father George P. aged 34 is a cab driver, and his wife Annie is age 34. They have four children, George L. 8, Bertha 7, Ronald 4, and Arthur S. 3. The family were all born in Liverpool.

In 1911 the family is living at 41 Melrose Road, Kirkdale.

The father George Patrick aged 43 is now employed as a weighing inspector, his wife Annie is aged 40 (1901 Census showed age as 34). They have been married for 19 years and have had six children, of which one had died. George John Leslie 18 is a printing machine minder, Bertha 17 cardboard box maker, Ronald 14 chemist’s assistant, Arthur Stanley 13 at school, and Richard Eric aged 5 at school.

Alfred’s service record has not survived, but SDGW shows that he enlisted in Knowsley, near Liverpool, as Private 26619, 17^th (Pals) Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment. He was billeted at Prescot Watch Factory, he trained there and also at Knowsley Hall. On 30th April 1915 the 17th 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. 

His mother died in January 1915, aged 44, and his father a year later, in January 1916, aged 47. 

By July 1916 the 18^th Bn was in the front lines at Maricourt on the Somme.  From 10^th to 12^th July the battalion is engaged in operations to take Trones Wood, still held by the Germans.

The murderous fighting that went on inside Trones Wood rendered it impossible to put specific dates on some of the casualties which is why many of the 17^th Battalion losses have been bracketed as killed in action between 10^th – 12th July 1916. The conditions are best described in the following passage from Everard Wyrall’s book The History of The King’s Regiment (Liverpool) Volume II. 

The remembrance of Trones Wood in July 1916 to those who passed through it is of a noisome, horrible place, of a tangled mass of trees and undergrowth which had been tossed and flung about in frightful confusion by the shells of both sides. Of the ghastly dead which lay about in all directions, and of DEATH, lurking in every hole and corner with greedy hands ready to snatch the lives of the unwary. The place was a Death trap, and although the attacks were made with great determination,   the presence of snipers who could not be detected and often fired into the backs of our men made the clearing of the wood impossible.

Alfred was reported as wounded and missing, and his worried sister placed a notice in the Liverpool Echo on 16^th August 1916:

SISTER IN SUSPENSE

 “Private A. Lumb, of the “Pals”, has been wounded and missing since July 12. Any information about him would be gratefully received by his sister, who lives at 41 Melrose Road, Liverpool.”

Alfred (Lumb, 26619 A.S.)  was still listed as Wounded and Missing in the Liverpool Daily Post on 22^nd September 1916.

It is not known when his brothers and sister learned of his fate.  His death on 12^th July was later presumed for official purposes.  Alfred’s body was never recovered from the battlefield, and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.  He was 18 or 19 years old.

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.”

His brother Ronald Lumb, Gnr 29024, 42^nd Trench Mortar Battery, Royal Field Artillery, was killed on 12^th August 1918, aged 22.  He now lies at Bertrancourt Military Cemetery, Somme.

Their sister, Miss Bertha Lumb, of 58 Hogarth Road, Liverpool, received her brothers’ pensions, as next of kin.

Alfred and Ronald are both commemorated on Liverpool’s Hall of Remembrance, Panel 24 Left.

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