West Berkshire War Memorials

Private 16409 Alfred Henry Appleford, 5th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment

 

Alfred, born in Baydon, Wiltshire in 1890, was the son of Henry Appleford and his wife, Sarah Ann (née Alexander). At this date Henry was a carter working on a farm in Bayden, moving on a couple of years later to another farm in Woodspeen before moving again to Lower Farm in Winterbourne. Henry's work involved the farm horses, he rather grandly described himself as head groom in the 1901 census, returning to 'carter' in 1911.

 

By 1911 young Alfred, aged 20 was still living with his parents and was working as a farm labourer, presumably at Lower Farm. When war came in 1914 Alfred was one of the enormous numbers of young men who rushed to sign up in response to Lord Kitchener's appeal for volunteers. He was accepted into the Royal Berkshire Regiment , early enough to become part of the first of the regiment's Service or Kitchener Battalions - the 5th Battalion.

 

This battalion was formed in August 1914, one of the first to be created, and consisted in roughly equal portions of recruits from Berkshire, Birmingham and London. Platoon commander Alec Gold recalled:

 

My platoon was a typical cross-section of the battalion. A third Berkshiremen, mostly country bred, a third from Birmingham and a third Cockneys. Of the latter I had an entire section who I swear were under 18 and must have given false ages on enlistment. It is no exaggeration to say that at first the three groups could not understand one word of what the others said. Perhaps dialects were more pronounced then but they might have been talking a foreign language as far as most of them knew. Later, when we got our first field telephones, this caused endless difficulties.

 

In February 1915 the 5th Battalion moved to Aldershot (from Folkstone) to join up with the newly formed 35th Brigade as part of the 12th Division. In May the Division departed for France, by the 1st June the entire Division had crossed the Channel.

 

The battalion settled into the routine of a front line unit, a few days manning the line followed by a period in reserve before returing to the line for another few days. In September 1915 they took part in the Battle of Loos, losing almost 100 of their number, but Alfred survived and the battalion settled back in the routine.

 

On 13 April 1916 the battalion relieved the 7th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment in a section of trench near Sailly Labourse. That day one officer was wounded, the following day one mand was killed while another officer and was wounded, as were 5 other ranks, 4 more were wounded on 15 April. On 16 April the battalion was relieved though they still lost a man killed and another wounded. Just another typical spell in the front line. Losses would be down to enemy sniping or shelling and had become a commonplace of life at the front. However, for Alfred and his family this was far from a normal few days, for Alfred was one of these casualties. He died of wounds on 16 April 1916, probably at a dressing station close behind the lines. He was buried in the Vermelles Brtish Cemetery in plot II.J.29, he was 25 years old.

 

His brother Frank also volunteered and was fortunate enough to survive the war, but another brother, Ernest was conscripted in 1917 only to die of meningitis a few weeks after donning his uniform, his story can be read here.

 

Newbury Weekly News 23 Aug 1917 p8 - Local War Notes

Pte Frank Appleford, Royal Berks Regt, late of Winterbourne, has been home from France enjoying a well earned rest, this being his second leave from that country. He was looking very well indeed. He is the only surviving brother of three who left all to answer the call of King and Country; Alfred dying of wounds April, 1916, and Ernest dying of sickness February, 1917.

 

Both Alfred and Ernest are commemorated on the Winterbourne War Memorial.