Our People - Albert Watson |
14 September 1914 |
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#10373 Private Albert Watson
1st Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment 2nd Brigade, 1st Division Killed in Action 14 September 1914 La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial, Seine-et-Marne, France. Albert Watson was born on 12 May 1884 in Chorley to George and Eliza Watson (nee Fox) and was baptized the following day at St.James, Chorley. George was a collier born at Mawdesley about 1833 and Ellen was born at Euxton about 1835. The couple lived at 175 Brooke Street. In 1891 they were living at 8 Crosse-Hall Lane, Chorley with Albert who was six and a scholar.
Albert was still with Ann and John Robert Livesey in 1911 at 168a Brook Street, Chorley. He was working as a labourer at a local wagon works. By the time war broke out in 1914, he was living in Leyland. Albert was one of the first of our local men to go out and the first to die. Having arrived in France at Le Havre on 12 August, 1914 – having crossed from Southampton on the ‘S.S. Agapenor’ – the battalion was moved into Belgium on 23 August 1914 and then took part in the ‘Retreat from Mons.’ In the subsequent advance their first major engagement was at Troyon on the River Aisne. At 10.30 am on 14 September they attacked a factory which they took and held until, with ammunition running out, they were forced to fall back to the ridge that they had previously occupied. In this action the Battalion suffered heavy casualties, 14 officers and 500 N.C.O.s and men were killed, wounded and missing including Albert, and in ‘B’ Company alone 3 officers out of 15, and 175 out of 220 other ranks were casualties. The Battle of the Aisne resulted in a stalemate which would lead to the race to the sea, where the Allied and German armies would continually try and outflank each other until they reached the coast at Belgium. It was the end of open warfare and the beginning of trench warfare. Albert’s remains were never recovered for burial and he is remembered at La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial, Seine-et-Marne, France. Albert was awarded the 1914 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal |
British soldiers in improvised shelters on the Aisne in 1914. Reproduced from The Old Contemptibles by Keith Simpson (George Allen and Unwin)
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