Alfred Henry Bass was born in Hemel Hempstead on Friday, 20th November 1891 the oldest child and only son of Henry Alfred Bass and Sarah Alkins. Henry and Sarah had a total of eight children one of whom died young. The surviving children were: Alfred Henry, Caroline Lydia, Annie Louisa, Bertha Ellen, Gertrude Nellie, Ethel May and Eva Mildred.

The Bass family lived at 15 Horsecroft Road, Boxmoor when Alfred was born, and his father Henry worked as a ‘Checker’ in the Envelope Department at John Dickinson & Co. Limited in Apsley Mills. His mother Sarah worked as a ‘Laundress’.

Living next door to Alfred in 1901 were Harry and William Gamble and three doors further along was Albert Charge. All four of these young boys fell in the Great War; the two Gamble boys six months apart in 1916 and Albert Charge in 1918. Their biographies all appear on this site.

Alfred started at Boxmoor JMI School in 1897, a few months after his sixth birthday, and proceeded to gain five of his seven standards before he left in November 1904 to start work as an ‘Errand Boy’ at a Grocers, no doubt one of the five or so on St John’s Road in Boxmoor.

By 1911 the family had moved to Cotterells in Hemel Hempstead and Alfred, his father and two of his sisters worked at Dickinsons in Apsley. His sixteen-year-old sister Annie worked for G. B. Kent and Sons Ltd in its Brush factory in Apsley. Her job was one of the myriad labour-intensive tasks involved in the manufacture of brushes; namely ‘Machine operator to bore holes for bristles’.

At around this time Alfred met Minnie Elizabeth Dear who lived on London Road, Boxmoor and whom he may already have known from Boxmoor JMI School. Minnie, originally from Putney, became Alfred’s sweetheart and they were married in Hemel Hempstead on Monday, 1st November 1915, a month before he enlisted.

Alfred attested at Hemel Hempstead on 11th December 1915, under the Derby Scheme, and deferred his enlistment until he was called-up on the 10th April 1916. The reason for deferment was probably because he and Minnie were expecting their first child and indeed, little Sydney Alfred Bass came into the world just three weeks after Alfred had joined up on the 29th April 1916.

Alfred enlisted with the 4th Battalion East Anglian Brigade, Royal Field Artillery but transferred to the Northamptonshire regiment and was posted to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion at Gillingham in Kent to train. He was taller than average for the time at 5ft 7ins, was of fair completion and very slim build weighing just 8st 8lbs. On completion of his training, he was sent to France on the 29th September 1916 and posted initially to the 2nd Battalion Northants, but two weeks later he transferred to the 6th Battalion Northants in the field.

Alfred fought in the third phase of the Battle of the Somme seeing action at Transloy, Ancre Heights and in the last battle on the Somme, the Battle of Ancre. In early 1917 he was with the Battalion near Miraumont north of Thiepval as a planned attack unfolded on the morning of 17th February. The attack was successful but the 6th Northants suffered numerous casualties in reaching its objectives, one of whom was the unfortunate Alfred.

He was killed at some point during the action on Saturday, 17th February 1917.

Minnie was officially notified one month after his death, on the 23rd March 1917. Before he had gone to war Alfred had been an enthusiastic member and bandsman of his local Salvation Army branch in Hemel Hempstead. On Sunday, 1st April 1917 the local Salvation Army Adjutant, Mr England and his wife, conducted a two-part service to commemorate their fallen comrade Alfred. A detailed report in the Hemel Gazette described first, the open-air service followed by a gathering of family, friends and comrades in the Salvation Army Hall.

After his death, Alfred’s wife Minnie received a pension of 18s 9d for herself and young Sydney.

He was initially buried about one mile east of Grandcourt and after the war, many of the soldiers killed were exhumed and transferred to the Regina Trench Cemetery. Many including Alfred were not formally identified and are assumed to have been transferred to the cemetery which contains a Special Memorial to commemorate the unidentified men.

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

Alfred is Remembered with Honour in Regina Trench Cemetery, Grandcourt, Somme, France on Special Memorial A. 5. The inscription on the memorial reads: “THEIR GLORY SHALL NOT BE BLOTTED OUT”.

He was 25 years old when he died.

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