Alfred Blakie was born in Islington, Middlesex on Tuesday, 11th November 1884 and baptised on Sunday, 7th December of the same year at Holy Trinity Church, Islington. He was the third child born to Thomas Blakie and Jane Greenman who had six children together. The children were: Thomas Walter, Elizabeth, Alfred, Charlotte, Louisa Jane and Emma Jane. His mother Jane died in 1907 aged fifty-three.His brother Thomas also fought in the Great War with the Royal Field Artillery and survived the conflict.

Alfred started his education on the 9th April 1888, aged only three, when he entered Penton Grove School. This was later renamed White Lion Street School after the street where it stood, and achieved a level of notoriety in the 1970’s when it operated as a ‘Free’ school, offering an alternative education without formal classes, timetables or even a requirement for pupils to attend. Alfred left school in March 1898 and started work as a ‘Van Guard’, literally guarding a Carman’s van when unattended during delivery rounds. By the time of the 1911 Census he was recorded working as a ‘Builder’s Labourer’ whilst living at home with his widowed father and two of his younger sisters.

In the summer of the following year he married Ellen Annie Smith on the 18th August at All Saints Church, Battle Bridge in King’s Cross and gave his occupation as ‘Floor Layer’. The newly-weds moved into 15 Gerrard Street, the heart of ‘Chinatown’ in London today, where their first child Thomas Alfred James was born in 1913. A second boy Albert Charles followed soon after in 1915. It is not known exactly when or why Albert brought his family to Hemel Hempstead, but by the time he enlisted he was living with Ellen and the boys at 86 St John’s Road in Boxmoor.

Alfred was called up for service under the Military Service Act in 1916 and he attested at Hertford in December enlisting with the Royal Field Artillery (RFA). He completed his basic training and was sent overseas in June or July 1917 to join his new unit, the 33rd Divisional Ammunition Column (DAC) RFA. An Ammunition Column consisted of dedicated military vehicles carrying artillery and small arms ammunition for the combatant unit to which the column belonged, in Alfred’s case this was the 33rd Division. The men in these units were also considered ‘Reserves’ and ready replacements for casualties for the Battalions within the Division.

Alfred saw action at Operations on the Flanders coast (Operation Hush), the Battles of the Menin Road Ridge and Polygon Wood as the Third Battle of Ypres came to a close late in 1917. At this point it is not clear if Alfred suffered exposure to gas before the end of the year as the 33rd DAC War Diary does not record any casualties in November or December 1917, and none during the first eight days of January 1918. Alfred may have been transferred to a front-line unit and suffered exposure to a gas attack in action, but the exact details are not known. What is known though, is that he died from the effects of gas-poisoning around Poperinghe near Ypres and his official date of death was recorded as Wednesday, 2nd January 1918.

Two years after Alfred’s death, his wife Ellen married a second time to Henry Fountain and went to live in Westwick Row, Leverstock Green. Ellen died in 1941 aged sixty-four.

Albert is Remembered with Honour in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, West Vlaanderen, Belgium, where he is interred in Grave XXVI. DD. 4A.

The inscription on his headstone, requested by his wife Ellen, reads: ”EVER IN OUR THOUGHTS”

He was 37 years old when he died.

Albert was eligible for the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.