Alexander Douglas Anderson

Memorial: Kingswood - Holy Trinity Church

Regiment: Gloucestershire Regiment

Medals: British War Medal, Next of Kin Memorial Plaque 1914 - 1921, Victory Medal

Rank and number: Lieutenant

Parents: Benjamin and Sarah Margaret Anderson

Marital status: Single

Home address: Home Address: The Cottage, Elms Road, Leicester. Lived: Mainhill Tower Road, Kingswood, Bristol

Pre-war occupation: Employed in father's leather business

Date of birth: 1886

Place of birth: Leicester

Date of death: 17/07/1916

Buried/Commemorated at: No known burial site but commemorated at Thiepval Memorial, Somme France, Kingswood Holy Trinity Memorial, Kingswood Methodist Memorial, St. Mary Magdalen Church Memorial, Knighton, Leicester, Clarendon Park Congregational Church Memorial, Leicester and the Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys Memorial, Leicester

Age: 30

Further information:

Alexander was born in Leicester, the son of a leather merchant and the youngest child of four with two brothers and a sister. He attended the Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester from 1899 to 1902. In 1911 he was working for his father and living in Kingswood where he would have had dealings with the boot industry.

Alexander was promoted to second lieutenant in February 1915 then mobilised to France with his battalion in March 1915 where they fought in various actions on the Western Front. He was subsequently promoted to Lieutenant. Alexander was killed in action during the Battle of Delville Wood (15 July - 3 September 1916) which was one of the engagements of the Battle of The Somme (1 Jul 1916 – 18 Nov 1916). The outcome of The Battle of The Somme was indecisive and cost the allies 420,000 casualties. Alexander's body was never identified and Thiepval Memorial where he is remembered, 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 who have no known grave.

By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):

This information has been provided by Sarah Hands, Volunteer Researcher for the South Gloucestershire War Memorials Web Site.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
https://www.cwgc.org/
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/