Alfred first became known to me as a name in about 1962 when I was doing a project at school about "Family History". My father told me that his mother had lost a brother in the First World War. Only years later when I started researching our family did I come across him again. A niece of his, a daughter of his only brother Thomas Jesse Barrett, told me that the family believed he'd lied about his age and enlisted, but I've found that he was in fact called up in the usual way. He was so young though to die at only 19. I think of him on Remembrance Day and of what a short life, like so many others, he had. He lies buried in Tyne Cot. There is also a memorial in Chester Cathedral, which one day I hope myself to see

Jean Spelman