BORN: 1896, St. Bride’s Netherwent, Monmouthshire, Wales.
UNIT: 2/7th Welsh Regt., 14th Royal Welsh Fusiliers, and 38th Machine Gun Corps.
DIED: Died of wounds 19 Sep 1918, aged 23
BURIED: Varennes Military Cemetery, Somme, France. Grave IV. A. 3.
LOCAL CONNECTIONS: Rectory Cottage, St Brides Netherwent. Castle Cottage, Bishton.
Early Life
Alban Leonard WILLIAMS was born in 1896 in St Brides Netherwent, Monmouthshire, Wales. He was baptised in the parish church on 31 Jan 1897. Alban was one of nine children born to George Walter WILLIAMS and his wife Elizabeth (nee WILCOX).
Alban’s father George was a Market Gardener from Langstone. He married Elizabeth from St Brides Netherwent on 04 Feb 1885 in St Brides Netherwent church. He later served as the Sexton at the same church.
In 1901, Alban, aged 4, lived with his family in their cottage near the Rectory in St. Brides Netherwent. However, he was not with his parents in St. Brides in 1911. By this time, two of Alban’s eight siblings had died. Only the two youngest daughters lived with their parents. Alban’s whereabouts in 1911 have not yet been discovered.
Alban and WW1
2/7th (Cyclists) Welsh Regiment (Territorials)
Alban’s medal records indicate that he had joined the Territorial Force before WW1. When war broke out, Alban joined the 2/7th Battalion (Cyclists) Welsh Regiment Territorial Force as Private 880. He enlisted within a month from 20 Sep 1914. Alban lived in Newport, Monmouthshire at the time, but he enlisted in Barry, Glamorgan. The Territorials were intended to be a home defence force. However many men volunteered for service overseas. Territorial Forces were therefore split into 1st line (overseas) or 2nd line (home) battalions. Hence, the 2/7th Bn formed in 1914 in Cardiff remained in Britain during the war. Cyclists were used for reconnaissance and communications, being lighter and quieter than horses.
Alban wrote a will on 20 Aug 1916 in which he bequeathed all his effects to his mother. He appears to be still with the Welsh Regiment at the time. However, sometime after this Alban transferred to 14 Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers as Private 56911. His final transfer was to the Machine Gun Corps as Private 139940.
14th Royal Welsh Fusiliers
14 RWF was part of 113th Brigade, which was one of the 3 brigades of the 38th (Welsh Division). The above dates suggest that Alban may not have been with the regiment in time to fight at the infamous battle at Mametz Wood during the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. There the 38th Division suffered big losses and did not see action again until the Battle of Pilckem in 1917. In 1918, the 38th Division fought in battles at Albert, Bapaume, Havrincourt, Epephy and Beaurevoir. The 14 RWF was disbanded on 08 Feb 1918.
Machine Gun Corps
In May 1916 each of the 38th Division’s three brigades (113th, 114th & 115th) had its own Machine Gun Company. However, they were combined to form the 38th Machine Gun Battalion in March 1918. This may be when Alban joined it.
Early battles, especially the First Battle of Ypres, demonstrated that machine guns needed special organisation and tactics. Specialist training centres were set up in France and England. Units were organised to form interlocking lines of fire that created a formidable defensive weapon. In attack machine guns were used more like artillery. They fired ‘creeping barrages’ ahead of advancing infantry, concentrated fire on specific targets, or sweeping the enemy’s supporting lines. Machine gun units were often stationed about 1000 metres behind the advancing infantry and moved forward as enemy ground was captured.
Death and Burial
WW1 - The Final One Hundred Days
In the summer of 1918 the German Spring Offensive had faltered and by 01 Sep 1918 the battlefield towns of Albert, Peronne, and Bapaume were back in Allied hands. The Germans had retreated to their stronghold, the Hindenburg line. General Haig then directed a series of 23 battle victories in the last 100 days as the Allies pushed back the Germans on a broad front. At the time, Haig was lauded in the British press for this. The casualties were high, at over 300,000 British alone, but the achievement of overall victory meant the British public seemed to accept this high price of peace. It was during this last 100 days of the war that Alban lost his life.
The route to Gouzeaucourt
On 01 Sep 1918 Alban’s battalion took part in the attack on Morval and covered the later advance on Sailly-Saillisel. The British advance continued and on 03 Sep the 38 MGC had reached Etricourt-Manacourt. The following day, one company covered the infantry crossing the Canal Du Nord on the road to Fins and ‘got some good targets’. Later that day, another section was ordered to support urgently. The guns were taken on limbers across open ground, horses at the gallop. They arrived with no casualties in time to catch and repel a German counterattack.
5th - 11th Sep 1918
On 05 Sep they were relieved by 21st Battalion. They spent the next few days resting away from the front line in makeshift accommodation made with tents and materials captured from German dugouts. On 10 Sep the battalion moved to Lechelle, north of Etricourt-Manacourt. The atrocious weather made the movement very difficult. They billeted in ‘very bad’ huts abandoned by the Germans. The following day they moved forward to the front line again, opposite Gouzeaucourt where they spent the next few days.
Alban is wounded
On 13 Sep 1918, ‘A’ Company was despatched to positions to cover the African Support Trench. ‘B’ & ‘C’ Companies were on the main line of German resistance to the east of Dessart Wood. ‘D’ Company were in close support just north of the Fins-Gouzecourt Road. All companies were ordered to use ‘vigorous harassing fire, especially by night’. Two men died and 8 were wounded that day.
Fighting continued with the MGC covering infantry attacks and defending against German counterattacks. Part of the German response was to bombard the Allies with gas shells. On 16 Sep 3 officers and 18 other ranks were wounded by gas. It seems that one of these was Alban. The progress report sent by telegraph on 17 Sep listed Alban and two of his comrades as ‘Dangerously Wounded’ by gas shells. One of them, Stanley PAYNE died on 18 Sep and was buried a few graves along from Alban.
Gas in WW1
This section makes unpleasant reading. You may want to skip forward.
German forces first used gas as weapon in Jan 1915, despite it being internationally banned in 1899. Whilst this was called ‘cowardly’ and ‘uncivilised’, Britain soon responded with its own chemical weapons.
Three main types of gas were used. Chlorine gas suffocated soldiers as it turned to hydrochloric acid in their airways, causing them to swell. In 1917 Chlorine gas was abandoned in favour of more dangerous Phosgene. Then all sides switched to vesicant gases such as Mustard Gas. Even if masked soldiers did not inhale the fumes, vesicants soaked into their woollen uniforms, causing terrible blisters all over the body.
Around 185,000 British and Empire soldiers were wounded by gas; 95% of them in the last two years of the war. However, gas caused only 6000 deaths; less than a third of those killed on the first day at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Weaponised gas was banned by the Geneva Protocol in 1925. Some claim its ineffectiveness as a weapon was the only reason countries were prepared to ban it.
His Burial
Alban was buried in Varennes Military Cemetery in grave IV. A. 3. The cemetery was laid out in August 1916, during the Battle of the Somme. It was extended by the 17th and 38th (Welsh) Divisions by the addition of plots II and III, and at the beginning of September 1918. Varennes is about 30 miles east of Gouzeaucourt, where Alban was wounded.
Medals and Pension
As per Alban’s will, his mother was his sole legatee. She received £14 8s 2d on 25 Jan 1919 and a further 19s 11d on 04 Mar 1919. Alban’s War Gratuity of £19 was paid on 09 Dec 1919.
Alban was awarded the British and Victory campaign medals, which were sent to his mother. He also received the Territorial War Medal. This was awarded to those who served in Territorial Force or Territorial Force Nursing Service on 4 August 1914 OR had at least four years’ service prior to 4 August 1914 and who rejoined by 30 September 1914.
What happened to his family?
Parents
In 1921 Alban’s parents still lived in St Brides Netherwent with his brothers, Ivor and Arthur. However, by the time Alban’s father George died in 1934 aged 85, he had moved to Castle Cottage, Bishton, Monmouthshire. George was buried in Bishton on 31 Oct 1934.
In 1939 Alban’s widowed mother Elizabeth lived at 7 Balmoral Road, Newport in 1939, along with her unmarried son Ivor. By the time she died in 1941, aged 78, she had moved to 131 Stow Hill, Newport. This is where her daughter Alice had lived until her death in 1936. Elizabeth was also buried in Bishton on 19 Feb 1941.
Siblings
Two of his siblings died as infants. Ethel Kate died in 1891 aged 7 weeks. George Henry died in 1898 aged 4 weeks. Both were buried in St. Brides Netherwent churchyard. His surviving siblings were:
Agnes Margaret WILLIAMS (b. 1885). Not yet distinguished from people of the same name.
Alice Maud WILLIAMS (b. 1888). She worked as a domestic servant at Penylan Farm, Barrack Hill, Newport in 1911 [not the same one as her sister Edith]. She married Thomas Albert ELLIS in Penhow in 1929. Alice moved to Stow Hill, Newport and died aged 48 in 1936. She was buried in Bishton.
Arthur Samuel WILLIAMS (b. 1892). He lived with his parents in St. Brides in 1921. He died in 1937, aged just 45. He was also buried in Bishton.
Edith Mary WILLIAMS (b. 1894). Strangely, her baptism record gives her name as Elizabeth Mary, which may have been a clerical error. She worked as a domestic servant at Penylan Farm, Penhow in 1911 [not the same one as her sister Alice]. Edith married railway signalman Sidney SHEPHERD in Penhow parish church on 10 Sep 1917. They lived in 104 St. Julians Road, Newport where they raised their children. Edith died in 1982.
Lucy Matilda WILLIAMS (b. 1900). Lucy emigrated to Canada where she married a South African man called Thomas William JONES in 1929.
Ivor Walter WILLIAMS (b. 1903). He lived with his parents in St. Brides in 1921. In 1939 he was still single and lived with his widowed mother in Newport. He worked as a Gulley Cleaner for Newport Corporation. Ivor died in 1975. He was 72 and lived in Tutshill, Chepstow. Ivor was not buried in Bishton. Instead, his ashes were buried in St Brides Netherwent on 06 Jun 1975 in the grave of Maggie Ellen SHEPPARD. Maggie had lived at 7 Balmoral Road, Newport when she died in 1953, aged 49. This is where Elizabeth and Ivor had lived in 1939. Maggie appears to have been Ivor’s first cousin. (His mother Elizabeth and her mother Mary Ann were sisters).
Contact me if you want more detail about the sources used or any help finding your ancestors’ stories, military or otherwise.
Links
Read more about the 100 Days Campaign here. https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-articles/the-final-one-hundred-days-of-the-western-front/
