263310 Pte. Albert Clayton British Army 29th Btn. Royal Fusiliers from:Leeds, Yorkshire Albert Clayton was an art student who was sent to France in 1916.
His family have found his war story written out in full in 2019 when going through some old documents. This has been published as a book called "Long Before Daybreak " which gives Albert's war story in great detail from July 1916 to May 1917.
Albert was originally recruited into the 29th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers known as the Public School's Battalion. This was joined with the 8th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers in France.
He describes his journey through France from the town of Albert and along the front lines up to Arras over a period of several months. He describes many of his comrades, their conversations and escapades, plus many graphic scenes of life in the trenches and around the war torn landscape behind the front lines.
Albert went over the top four times, the last of these during the Battle of Arras on 3rd of May 1917.
He was injured and eventually rescued and taken prisoner, becoming a POW in the camp at Ingolstadt in Bavaria for the remainder of the war.
It would be wonderful to make connections with the families of the many people he writes about and to find out more about his time as a POW. His story ends at the point he reaches Ingolstadt so we know very little about this time except for a photograph taken in the camp hospital in August 1917.
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