Hugh Francis Alston

Rank 
Lance Corporal
Regiment 
London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade)
Date of death 
28 March 1918
Age of death 
19
Address 
The Roseary
Churchfields
Woodford
RED
E18 2QT
Address source 
1911 Census
Cemetery / Memorial 
France
Biography 

Hugh Francis Alston was born in Clacton in 1899 to Hugh, a draper, and Elizabeth Alston. To differentiate between father and son, Hugh Jr. was known as Frank. The family moved from Clacton, to Stoke Newington, to Woodford, where they lived at The Rosary, Churchfields, Woodford by 1911.

Hugh Francis had one younger brother, John, who was born in 1901, and therefore too young to take part in the war. Hugh enlisted in Stratford with the 5th Battalion City of London Rifle Brigade. He was sent to the Western Front but was killed in action in the second battle of the Somme on 28th March 1918, the day after his 19th birthday. At the time of his death, he was a Lance Corporal. Hugh’s name is recorded on the Arras Memorial in France.

Research by Redbridge Museum

Sources:

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Ancestry.com