Pte 42405 Alfred Lloyd

• Age: 33
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• Died Thursday 18th January 1917
• Commemorated at: Doullens Cc Ext 1
  Panel Ref: IV.G.4

Alfred was born in Liverpool on 06th June 1883 the son of James Alfred Lloyd and his wife Harriet (nee Broster) who married in 1864. His father was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, but was a British citizen, his mother was born in Birkenhead. Alfred was the 11th of 12 children, the sixth son. His siblings were: Annie (who died aged 21), Lilian (died at 15), Thomas (died at 9 years old), Emily, Kate, Frank (died aged 11), Edith (died at 12), James Arthur, Herbert, Walter and Frederick. 

Alfred was admitted to Arnot Street School, Walton on 24th February 1890 and left on 19th February 1892. 

The 1891 Census shows the family living at 73 Carisbrooke Road, Walton. Alfred is shown as being 7 years of age and at school. His father is a 49 year old solicitor's clerk, born in South America, his mother is 47 years of age. He has five siblings; Emily is a 20 year old shop assistant, Arthur is a 13 year old office boy, Herbert 11, Walter 9 and Frederick E. are also at school.

Alfred's father died in in November 1896, aged 54, when Alfred was 13 years old. All the family burials were in the non-conformist section of Anfield Cemetery.

By 1901 the family have moved to 16 Windsor Road, Bootle. Alfred, now aged 17, is employed as a clerk in a wine merchants. He lives with his widowed mother, aged 57, five siblings and a nephew and neice. His sister Kate Delaville is a 27 year old widow and has her two children in the household; Edith aged 8 and Laurence aged 6. Alfred's other siblings are; James A. a 23 year old grocery warehouseman, Herbert 21 is a shipping clerk, Walter 19 is a solicitors clerk, and Frederick aged 15 is an apprentice electrical engineer.    

The 1911 Census finds the family are living at 21 Whitcroft Road, Fairfield, Liverpool. Alfred now 27 and single is working as a book keeper for a brewing company. He lives with his mother, now aged 67 and his brother Herbert a 31 year old shipping clerk.   

On 10th September 1911, Alfred then 28 married Mary (May) Lofthouse who was 24 at Stanley Chapel (Presbyterian) on Green Lane, Liverpool.

Alfred enlisted at Seaforth, likely in early 1916, joining as Private 42405 in the 17th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment.

He died of pneumonia following nephritis on the 18th January 1917, aged 33.

Alfred now rests at IV. G. 4 in Doullens Communal Cemetery Extension 1. 

Doullens was Marshal Foch's headquarters early in the First World War and the scene of the conference in March 1918, after which he assumed command of the Allied armies on the Western Front. From the summer of 1915 to March 1916, Doullens was a junction between the French Tenth Army on the Arras front and the Commonwealth Third Army on the Somme. The citadelle, overlooking the town from the south, was a French military hospital, and the railhead was used by both armies. In March 1916, Commonwealth forces succeeded the French on the Arras front and the 19th Casualty Clearing Station came to Doullens, followed by the 41st, the 35th and the 11th. By the end of 1916, these had given way to the 3rd Canadian Stationary Hospital (which stayed until June 1918) and the 2/1st Northumbrian Casualty Clearing Station.

From February 1916 to April 1918, these medical units continued to bury in the French extension (No 1) of the communal cemetery. In March and April 1918 the German advance and the desperate fighting on this front threw a severe strain on the Canadian Stationary Hospital. The extension was filled, and a second extension begun on the opposite side of the communal cemetery.

In May 1940, Doullens was bombed with Arras and Abbeville before being occupied by the Germans.

The COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION No 1 contains 1,335 Commonwealth burials of the First World War. There are also seven French and 13 German war graves from this period. Second World War burials number 35, more than half of them men of the Queen's Royal West Kents who died 20/21 May 1940.

Alfred's death was reported in the Liverpool Echo on 25th January 1917:

LLOYD - January 18, Private Alfred Lloyd K.L.R., beloved husband of May Lloyd (nee Lofthouse), of 77 Herondale Road, Mossley Hill, and sixth son of the late James A. Lloyd and Mrs Lloyd, now of Stoneycroft.

His only son, Alfred Thomas Lloyd, was born on 19th June 1917 at 77 Herondale Road, Liverpool. Sadly he never met his father as his birth was five months after his father had died. 

The birth of his son was announced in the Liverpool Echo on 20th June 1917

BIRTH

LLOYD - June 19, at 77 Herondale Rd to Mary, wife of the late PRIVATE ALFRED LLOYD, a son.

Soldiers Effects, including a Gratuity of £3, and Pension to widow Mary and child Alfred Thomas.

Mary was originally awarded a pension of 18/6d a week from July 1917, later replaced with an Alternative Pension of £1-13s-2d.

His widow placed an In Memoriam notice in the local paper on the first anniversary of his death:

"In affectionate remembrance of my dear husband, Private Alfred Lloyd, K.L.R., who died January 18, 1917. - Sadly missed by Wife and Baby."

Alfred is commemorated on the following Memorials:

Garston Roll of Honour 

St Matthew and St James Church, Mossley Hill 

His mother died in 1928 at the age of 84.

His widow Mary is found on electoral rolls at 77 Herondale Road until 1928. Online family trees show that she died in 1929 at the age of 42 (son Alfred would have been 11). This Mary Lloyd died at 274 Picton Road, the home of Herbert and Marion Mary Forrester, who owned the grave in which she was buried. No relationship has been found.

His son Alfred Thomas worked as a shipping clerk in 1939, later married and had a family, and died in 1993 aged 75.

We currently have no further information on Alfred Lloyd. If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.

Grateful thanks are extended to Mike and Jane Lloyd who gave permission for the use of the wonderful photograph of Alfred. Mike is the grandson of Alfred.