Alfred Stone was born in 1894 in Boxmoor the fifth child of George Stone and Mary Ann Harriet Odell who had twelve children in total, two of whom died young. Alfred’s five sisters who lived were: Louisa, Emily, Elizabeth, Hilda and Milly. His four brothers were: Arthur, William, George and Fred. His brother Arthur also fought and died in the Great War on the 19th April 1916 only three months before Alfred. Arthur’s biography also appears on this site.

In 1911 Alfred aged seventeen was working as a ‘Printer’ at Dickinson & Co. Limited at Apsley Mills and four of his older siblings also worked with the company. The Stone family of eleven lived in a ‘2 up 2 down’ house at 34 London Road, Boxmoor.

Whilst at Dickinsons, Alfred met Mabel Hunt an ‘Envelop Maker’[sic] at the factory, who lived at 33 Cotteralls in Hemel Hempstead. Alfred and Mabel became sweethearts and they married in March 1916 in Hemel Hempstead when Alfred had already enlisted and only four months before he was killed. Mabel married for a second time in 1917 to Harold Leese, a year after Alfred’s death, she and Harold had three children together and eventually moved away from Hemel Hempstead.

Alfred had enlisted in the Army ten months after the outbreak of war, attesting at Watford in May 1915. Dickinsons permitted a significant number of their employees to join the colours in the early months of the war but if a skilled man or specialist wished to join they had to first seek permission from the Company. This was so that the firm could continue to operate efficiently or to allow time for a replacement to be found. A number of Dickinson employees had to wait until 1915 before enlisting.

Alfred joined the Bedfordshire Regiment and was initially posted to the 3rd (Service) Battalion at Felixstowe to undergo basic training. He did not go to France until 1916 (evidenced by no award of the 1914-15 Star) and left for the Front in May 1916 joining the 6th Battalion Bedfords on the 12th of the month.

By the end of May he was in the trenches around Bienvillers before moving a short distance to the Heligoland Support Trenches close to Contalmaison in early July. Between the 8th and 12th July the Battalion incurred 191 casualties from enemy shelling and sniping and Alfred was wounded on one of these days and taken to 36 Casualty Clearing Station eight miles away in Heilly.

It was there that Alfred died of his wounds on Thursday, 13th July 1916. He had been at the Front for only eight weeks when he died.

He is commemorated on the Dickinson & Co. Limited War Memorial in Apsley.

Alfred is Remembered with Honour in the Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-L'abbe, Somme, France where he is interred in Grave II.B.27.

He was 19 years old when he died.

Alfred was entitled to the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.