Albert William Clifford

Memorial: South Gloucestershire war dead not on a local memorial

Regiment: Gloucestershire Regiment

Medals: 1914–15 Star, British War Medal, Next of Kin Memorial Plaque 1914 - 1921, Silver War Badge, Victory Medal

Rank and number: Private 4350 and 201308

Parents: Frederick and Emily Clifford

Home address: 4 Brook Road, St. George, Bristol

Pre-war occupation: Iron foundry worker

Date of birth: 25/06/1896

Place of birth: Downend, Bristol

Date of death: 16/08/1916

Buried/Commemorated at: No known burial site. Commemorated at Thiepval Memorial, Somme France. Not commemorated on a local memorial

Age: 20

Further information:

Albert was born in Downend, the son of a labourer and a middle child of seven children with six brothers and a sister. One of his older brothers, Ernest, was killed the year before Albert in 1915, also in the service of his country.

Albert's battalion (the 1st/4th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment) mobilised for war in March 1915 and landed at Boulogne where the formation became the 144th Brigade of the 48th Division and engaged in various actions on the Western Front including the Battle of Albert and the Battle of Bazentin Ridge. Albert died from wounds sustained during the Battle of Pozieres (23 July - 3 September 1916) which took place in France around the village of Pozières, during the Battle of the Somme. The fighting ended with the British in possession of the plateau north and east of the village at the cost of 23,000 allied casualties. However, Albert's body was subsequently never identified and the 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/
Some information supplied by Kingswood Heritage Museum