Albert Edward Owen was born in Hemel Hempstead on Thursday, 27th December 1894 and baptised on Friday, 25th October in the following year. He was the second child born to Edwin Owen and Elizabeth Carrington. Albert had six siblings who were: Alice, Edith Dorothy, Ethel Annie, William George, Ronald Harry and the youngest Winifred May.

When Albert and his sister Alice where born, the family lived in Queen’s Place in Hemel Hempstead, a small close just off Queen Street. Just over a year later they had moved to Bury Hill where the Owens would stay until Edwin died in 1931. By 1911 Albert, aged sixteen, had started work as a Factory Hand with G.B. Kent & Sons at their brush factory where two of his sisters Alice and Edith also worked. His father Edwin was as a House Painter.

Following the outbreak of war, Albert enlisted with the Bedfordshire Regiment attesting at Hemel Hempstead in December 1914. He was posted to the 7th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment and joined his Battalion in January 1916. He trained with the Battalion at Codford near Salisbury for the next seven months until he was mobilised and sent to France. The 7th Bedfords left Codford with a marching out strength of 820 men and 31 officers and arrived at Folkestone where it embarked with the 54th Brigade HQ on “S.S.Onward”. The battalion disembarked on the 27th July 1916 at Boulogne-sur-Mer before marching to Ostronove Rest Camp.

Albert spent the next seven months in an area around Fricourt fighting in skirmishes with the enemy but without any major action. Much of the Battalion’s time was taken up with reinforcing and improving trenches although there were regular sorties and night patrols into the German trenches. There were casualties from these patrols and as a result of enemy shelling and sniping, however these were relatively light in the circumstances.

In early March the Battalion moved south to Bray-sur-Somme where the wet and snowy weather made life in the trenches worse than usual and much of Albert’s time was spent repairing trench works. Possibly due to the inclement weather the next few weeks were quiet with only occasional artillery fire from either side. On the 5th April however, the 7th Bedford’s trenches came under increasing threat and the Germans shelled and strafed the Battalion’s position and a number of rifle grenades landed in the trenches.

Two days later Albert died when enemy shells again struck the Bedford’s trenches. He was killed instantly on Friday, 7th April 1916.

He is commemorated on the memorial plaque at G.B. Kent & Sons in Apsley.

Albert is Remembered with Honour in Carnoy Military Cemetery, Somme, France, where he is interred in Grave L.8.

He was 21 years old when he died. 

Albert was eligible for the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.