Albert was the son of Albert Edward and Ellen Lester, and was born in Silvester Street, Borough in 1896, the middle of three boys  - the youngest, Edward/Ted, was my Grandfather. At the time of the 1911 Census they lived in Dalston but soon thereafter moved to Ilford: Albert’s dad was an Inspector in the Metropolitan Police - his nephew, my Dad, would also serve in the Met.

In 1911, age 15, Albert was an Office Boy for a newspaper, and joined the 13th Kensington Battalion of the London Regiment in August 1915, aged 19. Seemingly, he first saw service in Egypt and it is not clear when he moved to the Eastern front. Over Christmas 1916, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, the lowest level of Commissioned Officer.

 

He died during the spring offensive of the Second battle of the Somme on 8th May 1918, age 22. He is commemorated at the Pozieres Memorial near Arras in France where he and 14,691 other men of no known grave who died in that battle are remembered.

 

He died leading an assault on a machine gun post, outside Neuville Vitasse, a tiny village a few kilometres from Arras, in which he and two other British soldiers were casualties. He was posthumously awarded the Military Cross for leading this action.

 

Albert was also posthumously awarded “Pip, Squeak and Wilfred” as the Great War Service medals were nicknamed.

James Lester