226168 Rflmn. Albert Beechey British Army 9th Btn Rifle Brigade from:Kensington, London (d.15th Sep 1916) Albert Beechey was born in 1892 in Kensington London to Alfred George Beechey and Agnes nee Hutchby. He had a sister and three brothers one of which was my grandfather Walter. Before the war Albert lived with his family in Paddington and worked for the nearby Great Western Railway as a railway porter, along with his father and brother Walter.
He enlisted to the 4th (that would become the 9th) Battalion Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) as rifleman, service number 4516, on 18th March 1912. In February 1915 he was posted to the Western Front with his battalion and fought at both Loos and Arras for which he was awarded the Star medal.
His unit must have been back in England when he married as his home address is listed as Sheerness in Kent. He married Florence Jane Marlow in North Kensington, who in the 1901 census when they were aged nine lived only a few doors away in Victoria Dwellings, Ladbroke Road, Kensington. So it seems they would have been childhood sweethearts.
Sadly just a year later on the 15th September 1916 he was killed in the battle of Flers–Courcelette part of the Somme offensive. He was never identified but is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial Pier and Face 16 B and 16 C. This battle is noted for the first ever use of a tank in warfare.
His brother Walter was too young to fight in WW1 and too old in WW2 but he always said that he took his revenge when as part of a Home Guard unit he was responsible for a spy being captured trying to signal to enemy aircraft to bomb the nearby railway sidings.
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