Pte 56356 Albert Archer

• Age: 21
• From: Manchester
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• K.I.A Thursday 10th October 1918
• Commemorated at: Le Cateau Mil Cem
  Panel Ref: V.G.18

Albert Archer was born born on 03rd November 1896 in Manchester, the youngest son of Tom Archer and his wife Margaret Ann (nee Ward). His father was born in Dodworth, near Barnsley, Yorkshire, where he worked as a coal miner, and his mother in Glamorganshire, Wales.  They married in Dodworth in 1877 and had 14 children, nine of whom are found on censuses.  Alice, Mary, Mary Ann, Sarah, and Caroline (who died in infancy) were born in Dodworth.  By 1881 the family had moved to the Manchester area, where Gertrude, Tom, Charles, and Albert were born.

He enlisted in Manchester joining the  17th Batttalion of The Manchester Regiment, which was also a Pals battalion, as Private 9415. The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that Albert enlisted in about February 1915 when he would have been 18 years old. No medal roll for the 1914-1915 Star has been found, suggesting that Albert did not proceed overseas until 1916, when he had turned 19.

On 7th October 1918 the 18th Bn arrives at the Hindenburg Line and pursues the retreating German army.  The battalion War Diary records -  

10th October 1918 - At 0230 hours the battalion moved forward to a position near RUEMONT, and attacked towards LE CATEAU at 0510.  Very little opposition was met with at the start but later considerable M.G. fire was encountered. …  Our right company was not in touch with the flank, and the troops on the right appeared to be held up by M.G. fire from the railway embankment … A short length of trench on the high ground immediately E. of LE CATEAU was also reported to be held by the enemy.  At 0848 the Centre Coy reached K.33.b and pushed a platoon into the N. W. outskirts of LE CATEAU.  The right company was temporarily held up by MG and sniper fire, but appeared to be almost in the town itself.  Hostile M.G. fire was reported from the direction of Q.10. … Houses in K.28.a were reported to be strongly held by the Bosche, and a patrol was sent out to investigate and deal with them. … During the advance on LE CATEAU considerable difficulty was experienced, owing to a “whizz bang” battery being able to fire over open sights at the troops as they moved up the rise and along a slight valley.

Total Casualties from 7th to 13th October:

Killed – 2 Officers, 18 O.R.

Wounded – 6 Officers, 111 O.R.

Died of Wounds – 1 O.R.

Wounded and Missing – 1 Officer, 20 O.R. 

Albert was one of those casualties referred to, he now rests at Le Cateau Military Cemetery, France. The inscription on his headstone reads:

“THERE'S REST FOR THEE AT HOME” 

Le Cateau-Cambrésis and the country to the west of it was the scene of a battle fought by the British II Corps on 26 August 1914 against a greatly superior German force. The town remained in German hands from that date until the evening of 10 October 1918, when it was rushed by the 5th Connaught Rangers and finally cleared a week later. During the war Le Cateau had been a German railhead and the site of an important hospital centre. The military cemetery was laid out by the Germans in February 1916 with separate plots for the Commonwealth and German dead. It contains the graves of over 5,000 German soldiers, many of whom were buried during the occupation, the rest being brought in from other German cemeteries after the Armistice. A separate plot contains the graves of 34 Russian prisoners of war who died in captivity. The Commonwealth plot is the site of almost 700 graves and commemorations of the First World War. The majority of the graves in Plots I, III, IV and V are those of British dead buried by the Germans, mainly from the battleground of 1914; Plot II contains entirely graves of October and November 1918, eight of which were brought in after the Armistice.

The date and cause of Albert’s death are not certain.  His family was initially informed that he had been wounded in action and was missing.  They contacted the British Red Cross on 20th November 1918 in hopes that he had been taken prisoner.  

His mother requested information in the Manchester Evening News on 02nd December 1918:

“Pte. Albert Archer, King’s Liverpool Regiment, wounded and missing since October 10.  Mother: 130 Grey Street, Longsight.”