Alfred Hall was born in Hemel Hempstead in early summer 1886 and baptised on Sunday, 29th August of the same year at St Paul’s Church on Queen Street, where his family lived. He was the second child born to William Hall and Annie (Eliza Ann) Andrews who had a large family of twelve children together. The children were: Henry Charles, Alfred, Rebecca, Ethel, William, Rose, George, Frederick, Lily and Ernest. Two other children died in infancy. His younger brother William was also killed in the Great War in 1915 and his biography appears on this site. His brothers Henry and George also served in the Army and his brother Frederick served with the Royal Navy. They all survived the conflict.

When Alfred left school in 1899, he started work at John Dickinson and Co. Limited in Apsley Mills where he was a "Card Remover". By the time of the next census in 1911 he is recorded working as an "Iron Striker" in a foundry, which was in fact the Boxmoor Iron Works on Marlowes, owned by Joseph Bailey. Two years later in May 1913, Alfred enlisted in the Territorial Force and joined the 1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment as a means of supplementing his wages. His attesting officer was 2nd Lieutenant Harcourt Snowden who was also killed in the Great War and his biography also appears on this site.

At his medical assessment on enlistment, Alfred is described as "5 feet 3¼ inches tall" and with "Good Vision" and "Good Physical Development". He was passed "Fit" for military service but just over a year later he was discharged from the army as a consequence “of being medically unfit for further military service”. The reason for this assessment is not recorded on his service record but, whatever the cause, it was not so serious to prevent his later reenlistment following the outbreak of war.

Alfred was called up under the Military Service Act in 1916 and went to Watford to attest in March, but only after he married his sweetheart Florence Evelyn Mote. Florence was a native of Wisbech in Cambridgeshire but had come to Apsley to work as a "Millhand" with John Dickinson & Co. Limited. It was there that she and Alfred met following his return to Apsley Mills before he went to war. They married in the Registry Office in Hemel Hempstead on Saturday, 19th February 1916 just a few weeks before Alfred enlisted. Florence subsequently remarried in 1920, following Alfred’s death, and moved back to the east of England where she raised two daughters with her new husband Edward Stannard.

Alfred enlisted with the Bedfordshire Regiment and went to train at Felixstowe and on completion he was posted to the 7th Battalion Bedfordshires or "The Shiney Seventh". It is not known exactly when he went overseas, but it would not have been before October 1916 and was more probably early 1917. He was subsequently transferred to the 6th Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment, part of a tactical group including the 7th Bedfords, under the orders of the 18th (Eastern) Division.

In March 1918, Alfred fought in the Battle of St Quentin (First Battle of the Somme 1918), beginning on the 21st of the month. Two days later the Germans launched a counter attack and laid down an intensive artillery barrage on the Northants positions. This continued almost unabated for two further days and the 6th Battalion incurred significant numbers of casualties before finally withdrawing.

Sadly Alfred was killed during the actions and he died on Sunday, 24th March 1918.

Alfred was commemorated on the John Dickinson & Co. Limited War Memorial at Apsley End.

Alfred is Remembered with Honour on the Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France, Panel 54 to 56.

He was 31 years old when he died.

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