L/Sgt 57984 Albert Roland Russell (DCM)

• Age: 25
• From: Fleet, Hampshire
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• D.O.W Wednesday 8th May 1918
• Commemorated at: Tyne Cot Memorial
  Panel Ref: Panel 31-34

Albert Roland Russell was born in 1893, in Fleet, near Aldershot, the son of William Russell and his wife Mary Emma (nee Berry). His father, from Tonbridge, Kent, and his mother, from Crookham, Hampshire, married in Hampshire in 1892.  Albert was their only child. He was baptised in All Saints, Fleet, on 05th March 1893, his father's occupation given as plasterer. 

At the time of the 1901 Census, the family are living in Crookham Street, Crookham. His father is 36, a plasterer, his mother is 29, and Albert is 8. 

When he was 18, on 20th March 1911, he enlisted for four years, as Rifleman 1342, 8th Battalion of the London Regiment (Post Office Rifles), a Territorial unit. He is described as being 5' 9" tall, gives his occupation as assistant postman, and his address as 35 Cranmer Avenue, Ealing.  He gives as next of kin his mother at an illegible address in Long Cross, Chertsey, Surrey, later (dated 18th January 1915) amended to 4 Holly Cottages, Virginia Water. 

The 1911 Census, taken two weeks later, shows  Albert, 18, living at 35 Cranmer Avenue, West Ealing. He is a machine minder, and is boarding with the Thorne family. His parents are running a laundry in Barrow Hills, Long Cross, Chertsey, Surrey.  His father is 46 and his mother 41. They have three live-in servants/laundresses working in the business. 

Before the war, Albert was a member of the Cygnet Rowing Club. The club was founded for non-manual male General Post Office workers, and rowed at Putney. Most of the club members who volunteered joined the Post Office Rifles. 

Albert volunteered for overseas service and was embodied the day after war was declared, on 05th August 1914. The battalion arrived in France on 18th March 1915 and saw action at Festubert and Loos. 

At the declaration of war all service commitments were automatically extended by one year.  He returned to England on 20th March 1916, time expired (5 years and 9 days), and was discharged in London on 07th April 1916.   

His discharge papers show his character as very good, an "honest, sober, and trustworthy soldier".  He is now 23 years and 2 months old, described as 5' 10 and a half inches tall, with a fair complexion, blue eyes and fair hair.  His occupation is sorter, and intended place of residence 35 Cranmer Avenue, West Ealing. 

Army regulations enabled a £15 bounty to be paid to soldiers of the Territorial Force if they were retained in the service beyond the date on which they would have been due for discharge.  This was paid after they had served the extra year required by the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act.

Every effort was made to grant to time-expired men and retained in the service, a month's leave, "provided the exigencies of the Service permit". 

Albert re-enlisted, and made a will on 29th July 1916, likely before departing for France, leaving the whole of his property and effects to be equally divided between his mother and father, except for 10 pounds to his aunt, Mrs. Baley, at 75 Chandos Avenue, West Ealing.

He was serving in the 17^th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Lance-Sergeant No 57984 when he died of wounds on the 08^th May 1918 during the German Spring Offensive.

Albert was originally declared Missing on 08th May 1918, and his death was later presumed, for official purposes, as having occurred on or since that date.

He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium. 

Those United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after August 16th 1917 are named on the Tyne Cot Memorial, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war.

The Tyne Cot Memorial now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage and F.V. Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett on 20 June 1927.

The memorial forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which was established around a captured German blockhouse or pill-box used as an advanced dressing station.

He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (D.C.M).The citation states he was from Virginia Waters (Surrey). 

57984 Cpl. (L./St.) A. R. Russell, L'pool R. (Virginia Waters).

The London Gazette dated 03^rd September 1918

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during long operations. On one occasion when the battalion counter attacked, he went forward alone, put out of action an enemy machine gun, which was holding up the advance, and then led his men forward. His determined courage and coolness set a splendid to all near him.   

Albert earned his three medals. His Army effects and a War Gratuity of £13 went to his mother (another Soldiers' Effects entry shows a War Gratuity of £9-10s). 

It is not clear from the pension card, in the name of his mother, at 4 Holly Cottages, Virginia Waters, whether a pension was awarded.  The card shows 'claimant remarried', a remarriage gratuity being paid in November 1920. 

Probate, giving Albert's address as 35 Cranmer Avenue, in the amount of £105-5s, was granted to his mother on 27th June 1919.  

In 1921 his medals were sent to his mother, then living at Sole Farm, Wisboro Green, near Billinghurst, Sussex. 

Albert was the last of the eleven from the Cygnet Rowing Club who lost their lives during the war.  The fallen were commemorated at a ceremony to mark the centenary of the end of the war in 2018.

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