Albert Victor Scraggs was born in Spring 1897 in Barnsbury near Islington in London. He was the fourth child born to Henry R Scraggs and Annie Louise Murgatroyd who had six children together. The children were: Jessie, Minnie, George Henry, Albert Victor, Arthur Robert and another unknown child who died young. His father Henry was a "Railway Porter" with the Great Northern Railways, based at King’s Cross station close to where Albert was born. His mother and brothers also worked in various capacities for GNR after his father died in 1908 aged forty-six.

On leaving school in 1911, Albert started work, possibly with the railway, and a few years later he came to live and presumably work in Hemel Hempstead. He lived at 3 Glenview Gardens in Hammerfield with the Campbell family, whose son William, born Kelly, also died in the Great War only four months after Albert. His biography also appears on this site. It seems that the young men became good friends because, when the War Memorial was proposed, William’s mother Alice requested that the two men be commemorated together. Albert’s name was incorrectly recorded as “Scraggs A.J.” when the initial list of men was published in July 1919, however, this error was corrected by the time the memorial was unveiled in 1921.

Albert volunteered in June 1915 as soon as he was eighteen and travelled back to London where he attested at Holloway. He enlisted with the Middlesex Regiment and was posted to the newly formed Duke of Cambridge's Own 21st (Service) Battalion (Islington), in effect his local regiment. He was sent for basic training at Aldershot, before the Battalion moved south to Witley in February 1916 in preparation for mobilisation. Shortly after his nineteenth birthday, Albert went to France, sailing from Southampton at 6.30pm on the "SS Caesarea" on the 4th June 1916 and disembarking at Le Havre the following day after a “rough crossing”. Initially, the Battalion was concentrated around Lilliers and then served with the 40th Division between June and late October 1916 on the front near Loos.

Albert saw action in the trenches during this period and was engaged in trench repair work and training when not in the frontline. This was the pattern of activity for the 21st Middlesex until the end of 1916. The new year brought little change for Albert until mid-February, at which point his army records indicate that he left the Battalion and it seems France. It is possible that he suffered from illness as the Battalion War Diaries do not record any casualties in the month leading up to his departure.

He was out of the line for a period of seven months and when he returned, he was posted to the 12th Battalion Middlesex. Shortly after his arrival he saw his first serious action when he fought at Passchendaele in October surviving the horror unscathed. In April 1918, Albert was transferred to the 2/2nd (City of London) Battalion (Royal Fusiliers) as it was hastily reorganised after heavy losses when it had been reduced to an establishment of only ten Officers and 250 other Ranks. Albert joined his new unit near Villers-Bretonneux on the 6th April and just over two weeks later he was in action in the Battle for Villers-Bretonneux as the Germans continued their spring offensive.

It was here that his luck finally ran out, when on the fourth day of fighting he was listed missing and later confirmed killed.

Albert died on Wednesday, 24th April 1918.

Albert is Remembered with Honour on the Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France on Panel 19 to 21.

He was 21 years old when he died.

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