Pte 49625 Alfred Sagar

• Age: 19
• From: Bradford, Manchester
• Regiment: LABOUR CORPS
• Died on Sunday 9th September 1917
• Commemorated at: Ridge Wood Military Cemetery
  Panel Ref: III.P.5

Alfre was born in Bradford, Manchester in late 1897, the eldest son of Richard Sagar and his wife Lily (née Edwards). Both born in Lancashire, his father from Newton and his mother from Bradford, his parents married in 1896 and had ten children, two of whom died young. Their firstborn, Richard, died in infancy.  Alfred was the oldest surviving child; he had younger siblings Lily, Mary Ellen, Robert, Ethel, Eliza, Margaret, Alice (died in infancy), and John. 

Alfred was baptised in Bradford on 30th December 1897, his parents’ residence given as 17 Hey Street, and his father’s occupation as labourer.  The Christ Church baptism register notes, ‘copied from St. Aiden’s register’. 

In 1901 the family is living at 17 Lindon Street, Bradford, Manchester, with two children. His father is a collier’s labourer, Alfred is 3. 

They moved to Droyslden (Ashton Under Lyne district) in about 1907 and the 1911 census finds them at 6 Halcrow Street, Droylsden, with seven children.  His father, 34, is a labourer, pit brow, his mother is 33.  Alfred is only 13, but working part-time as a scavenger, cotton spinning.   (The youngest children in the textile factories were usually employed as scavengers and piecers. Scavengers had to pick up the loose cotton from under the machinery, which was extremely dangerous as the children were expected to carry out the task while the machine was working.)   Two more children were born after the census.  

He enlisted in Ashton Under Lyne and joined the 18th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 73610. The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he served for one year, enlisting when he would have been 18 years old.

At some point Alfred was transferred to 83rd Coy, Labour Corps, previously 18th Infantry Labour Coy, Liverpool Regiment.  The Corps was manned by officers and other ranks who had been medically rated below the "A1" condition needed for front line service. Many were returned wounded. Labour Corps units were often deployed for work within range of the enemy guns, sometimes for lengthy periods.

Alfred was killed in action on 09th September 1917 and now rests in Ridge Wood Military Cemetery, Flanders (3 miles southwest of Ypres).  He was 19 years old. 

However, his headstone at Ridge Wood Cemetery is that of a Liverpool Pal with the Eagle and Child badge rather than the badge of the Labour Corps.  

Ridge Wood was the name given to a wood standing on high ground between the Kemmel road and Dickebusch Lake. The cemetery lies in a hollow on the western side of the ridge and the position was chosen for a front line cemetery as early as May 1915. The first graves were from the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles and similar groups were made by the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st Canadian Battalions and the 9th Durham Light Infantry at the times when they occupied this sector. The German advance in the spring of 1918 pushed the front line back on to the ridge, and it was not till July that the wood was finally cleared by the 6th and 33rd Divisions. There are few burials from these last battles in the cemetery and the graves of some French divisions, which fought alongside Commonwealth forces in April and May, were removed to other burial grounds. The cemetery contains 619 Commonwealth burials of the First World War. The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

His Army effects, including a War Gratuity of £3 went to his father. His mother Lily, at 9 Beswick Street, Droyldsen, was awarded a pension of 15/- a week from April 1918. 

His father died in 1929 at the age of 53.   

In 1939 his mother Lily, 64, is living with married daughter Margaret at 51 Peel Street, Duckinfield, Cheshire.

She appears to have lived until 1961, dying at the age of 86. 

Alfred has sadly not been found on any Memorial.

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