Albert Abbott (1897 - 1916)
A Territorial soldier, Joseph – as he was known to his family – was mobilised at the outbreak of the War in August 1914, but was too young then to be sent to fight overseas. He was sent to France in July 1916, and joined the 2nd Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment the following month. Joseph was Killed in Action on 16th August 1916, during the Battle of the Somme.
- 8
- Died in the Great War
- 51.971954, 1.059679
Details
| Name: | Albert Joseph Abbott |
| Service: | British Army |
| Unit: | 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment |
| Regimental Number: | 43345 |
| Rank: | Private |
| Date of Death: | 16th August 1916 |
| Age: | 19 |
| Commemorated: | Face A of Pier 2, Thiepval Memorial, near Albert, France |
To the Abbott family from East End belongs a sad distinction: They are the only East Bergholt family to have lost members in both the Great War, and the Second World War. The youngest member of the family to lose his life was Albert Joseph Abbott. 1 In the course of the Great War, Joseph’s Mother lost a son and 2 sons-in-law. She also lost a grandson in the Second World War. All are commemorated on the East Bergholt War Memorials:
Joseph’s eldest sister Alice, married Algernon Armitage from Brantham in 1908. They made their home at 1 Holly Cottages, in East End. In the Great War, Algernon served with the 2nd Battalion of the Essex Regiment. He died of wounds in hospital near Boulogne on 26 June 1915, aged 30. Algernon is buried in Boulogne Eastern Cemetery.
Amelia Abbott – Joseph’s sister – married George Nunn from Manningtree in 1916. George served in the 11th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers and died of wounds in hospital in Rouen on 19th February 1917, aged 25. He is buried in the St. Sever Cemetery Extension, in Rouen.
Joseph’s nephew – John Washington Abbott, the eldest son of his brother “Jack” – served in the Royal Horse Artillery during the Second World War. John was killed in action in Libya on 15th January 1943, aged 24. He is buried in Tripoli War Cemetery.
Family Background and Early Life
Joseph, as he was known to his family, was born on 24th January 1897 in Washington House (which still stands on Brantham Hill), the fifth child of John Washington Abbott and his wife Alice.
Joseph’s father, from Newton-le-Willow in Lancashire, was a Foreman at the Xylonite factory in Brantham, and one of the original employees when it had first opened in 1887. Two years earlier, John had married Alice Street – a 21 year old widow with a young son called Richard – in London.2 Richard (“Dick”) Street would later serve on the Western Front with the 10th Battalion of the Essex Regiment in early 1917. He was returned to the UK after being wounded and later – in 1918 – was transferred to the Army Service Corps.
Alice, whose maiden name was Sparrow, had been born in Ardleigh, though she spent most of her childhood in nearby Elmstead. In their 21 years of marriage, John and Alice would have ten children together, of whom eight would survive to adulthood. This was not unusual in an age when large families and high infant mortality were relatively common.
By 1st April of 1901, the family were living at the Crown Inn at Cattawade, where Joseph’s father was the Publican. John was still employed at the Factory, as this was a time when being a publican was not a full time job for most people. Later that same month, John took over the Royal Oak, or “Dickie”, at East End, which became the family home.
Joseph started his schooling at East Bergholt School, which was then situated at Burnt Oak Corner, in May 1901. He later changed schools when his father became the Publican at The Ark, on Cattawade Street, and the family moved back to Brantham.
Tragedy struck the Abbott family, when Joseph’s father died of Meningitis at Cattawade in January 1907. In September 1909, Alice and her children moved to 4 Holly Cottages at East End, which would remain the family home for many years.
As a result of the move, Joseph completed his formal education where it had begun – at East Bergholt School – finally leaving on 18th January 1911, just before his fourteenth birthday.
For a short time after he left school, Joseph was employed as a Shepherd, but at some point between April 1911 and January 1912, he followed in the footsteps of his late father, and his two elder brothers “Jack” and Ted, and started work at the Xylonite factory, in the Roller department. 3 Both Jack and Ted served in the Army during the Great War:
John Abbott – or Jack as he was known – served in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was not sent overseas but at various times served in military hospitals in Sheffield, Blackpool and Brighton.
Edward (“Ted”) Abbott was a pre-war Territorial. He served on the Western Front, iniutially with the Grenadier Guards and later with the Guards Machine Gun Regiment. Ted was wounded, but survived the War.
Once he was 17 – and old enough to do so – Joseph joined the 6th Cyclist Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment as a Private, though he remained employed at the factory. The Battalion was one of the units which made up the Territorial Force (the forerunner of the Territorial Army). The soldiers of the Territorial Force trained at evenings and weekends, and would be called up for full-time service in the event of a war, although their agreement would then be required for them to serve overseas.
1914 – 1916
It seems likely that Joseph was at Pakefield Cliff, near Lowestoft in early August of 1914, as part of the 6th Battalion’s annual training. He was “called up” as part of the Territorial Mobilisation of the Army on 5th August, the day after Great Britain declared war on imperial Germany, following the latter’s invasion of neutral Belgium.
Following the declaration of war, every man of military age in the 6th Battalion volunteered for service overseas. However, this did not include Joseph as at this time a soldier had to be at least 19 years old to serve overseas in a theatre of war. Joseph was only 17, and as a result would spend the next two years engaged in home defence duties, initially in Suffolk and later – probably – in Lincolnshire.
1916 – Overseas Service and The Battle of the Somme
Sadly, Joseph’s Army Service Record no longer survives, so we cannot be totally certain of exactly when he was sent overseas, except that it was after 31st December 1915. However, strong evidence does exist to indicate that Joseph was part of a large draft of men sent to France in July 1916, disembarking at Boulogne before then going to the infamous “Bullring” camp at Etaples.
Joseph was posted to the 2nd Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment during the first part of August – possibly as late as the 12th or 13th of that month – which would have meant he was only with them for a day or two before they marched to the front.
The Battle of the Somme had been raging for a month and a half when Joseph arrived in the front line, just south of the village of Guillemont on 15th August. The Battalion’s first day in the front line was spent deepening, widening and generally improving the trenches they occupied.
The next day the Battalion received orders to carry out an attack in co-operation with the French who were positioned to their right. The attack was due to commence at 5.30 that afternoon, following a heavy artillery bombardment of the German lines. On the right, the Battalion’s attack was successful, taking approximately 250 yards of an enemy trench nicknamed “Cochrane Alley”, and capturing a small party of Germans. On the left however, the attack only managed to move forward 120 yards before being halted by heavy machine gun fire; the survivors taking cover in shell holes until dark, when they withdrew to their original lines.
During those few hours, the 2nd Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment suffered 179 casualties, either killed, wounded or missing. Amongst those who were killed was Joseph, he was just 19 years of age.
Joseph’s body was never identified, and his is now one of over 72,000 names inscribed on the Thiepval Memorial in France. This imposing monument commemorates those officers and men from the United Kingdom and South Africa, who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave.
Postscript
The Abbott family – with Jack as the “head” of the household – remained living in 4 Holly Cottages until the 1940’s.
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to Joseph’s nieces and nephew, Mrs J. Sage, Mrs A. Double and the late Mr. J. Abbott, for kindly helping a complete stranger with information, recollections and photographs from their family history.
Copyright © Mark Ashmore, 2024
- 8
- Died in the Great War
- 51.971954, 1.059679
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