Albert Read was born in Hemel Hempstead on Monday, 3rd February 1896 and baptised at St Mary’s Church the following month on Sunday, 22nd March. His parents were Thomas Read and Carrie (Caroline) Brinklow and he had five siblings: Fred and Edith who were older and William, Harold and Arthur, all younger.

Albert grew up at 65 Bury Road in Hemel Hempstead and his father Thomas, who had been a ‘Carman’, worked for the town council as a ‘Lamplighter’ for over twenty years. After he left school in 1909, Albert followed his sister Edith into G.B. Kent and Sons Ltd and trained as a brush maker at the Frogmore factory in Apsley. He was recorded as a ‘Brush Finisher’ on the 1911 census return when he was fifteen-years-old.

Albert was called up for service in 1916 and went to Dover in August where he attested and enlisted with the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA). He was twenty-years-old and described as 5ft 9¼ins, taller than average at that time. He was assigned to 258th Siege Battery as a Bombardier and went to begin his basic training.

Siege Batteries of the RGA were equipped with heavy howitzers, which could send large calibre high explosive shells in high trajectory known as ‘plunging fire’. They were most often employed in destroying or neutralising enemy artillery, as well as putting destructive fire down on strongpoints, dumps, store, roads and railways behind enemy lines.

Training over, Albert was sent to France with his Battery on the 27th February 1917 just over three weeks after his 21st birthday. His time at the front was tragically brief and within nine weeks of arriving, Albert was seriously wounded on the 7th May and immediately taken down the line and admitted to hospital for treatment. He was taken to No.1 Australian General Hospital at Rouen with gunshot wounds in the shoulder and one lung. He remained in hospital for the next seven days but despite the attention of medical staff, he succumbed to his wounds and he died on Tuesday, 15th May 1917. In all Albert had been at the Front for only eighty-one days when he died.

Albert’s death was reported in the Hemel Gazette in July 1917 and touchingly tells how a nursing Sister was with him when he died and attests to his fortitude until the end.

Five months after his death his mother Carrie received a heartbreakingly pathetic parcel containing Albert’s possessions when he was killed. These were; “Handkerchiefs, 2 discs, pocketknife, silver watch and chain (broken), gloves”. No doubt these few items were cherished by his mother.

He is commemorated on a memorial plaque at G.B. Kent and Sons Ltd in Apsley.

Albert is Remembered with Honour in the St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France where he is interred in Grave P. II. O. 13B.

He was only 21 years old when he died.

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