Pte 86440 Albert Edward Nicholls

The village is so small there is so need for addresses as such. In 1901 His father is a self-employed wheelwright, both parents are 34, Albert is 2, Dorothy is 1. 

 

His father died at the age of 44 in February 1911, not long before the census was taken. He left £132-16s-4d to his widow. In the 1911 Census Albert Edward's widowed mother Emily is head of household, described as a ‘domestic’, at home, Albert is 12, Dorothy 11, Sydney 9 and Mabel is 4.

The War Diary for November 1917 records the battalion in the Hollebeke sector. On 5th November at 9 p.m. the battalion relieved the 20th K.L.R. in the front line trenches. On 7th November, holding the front line, 4 Other Ranks were Killed and 3 Wounded from shelling. (The other 17th Bn Pals killed that day were Privates 51659 Richard David Williams, 46697 Timothy Charles Hancock, and 86428 Harry Copp.)

 

Albert Edward was 19 years of age when he was killed in action and he now rests at Kemmel Chateau Military Cemetery, Belgium at plot O.16.

Kemmel Chateau was north-east of Kemmel village and the cemetery was established on the north side of the chateau grounds in December 1914. It continued to be used by divisions fighting on the southern sectors of the Belgian front until March 1918, when after fierce fighting involving both Commonwealth and French forces, the village and cemetery fell into German hands in late April. The cemetery was retaken later in the year, but in the interval it was badly shelled and the old chateau destroyed. There are now 1,135 Commonwealth burials of the First World War in the cemetery and 21 from the Second World War (which all date from the Allied withdrawal ahead of the German advance of May 1940).

 

The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

He earned his two medals.  

His mother Emily received his effects, Army Pay of £4 10s 6d, War Gratuity of £3, and a pension of 7/- a week. 

On the 1921 Census at Ebrington mother Emily is aged 54, Dorothy E. is 22, Sydney G. 19, and Mabel M. 14.  

Emily lived to the age of 76, long enough to see another world war. She died in 1942, 31 years longer than her husband and 25 years after her son. His siblings lived into their 70s and 80s.