GUNNER 231717 ALFRED VERTIGAN, 331st BRIGADE ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY, DIED OF WOUNDS 25TH MARCH 1918 AGED 19 YEARS

GUNNER 231717 ALFRED VERTIGAN, 331st BRIGADE ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY, DIED OF WOUNDS 25TH MARCH 1918 AGED 19 YEARS

Born in the small Norfolk village of Sculthorpe in 1898 Alfred was one of five children born to Ellen Vertigan. It isn’t possible to say who his father was since Ellen’s husband, Jacob, had in fact died in 1896 and there is no evidence of her having remarried before Alfred’s birth. By 1911 and now aged 12 years old Alfred is recorded as being an inmate at an Industrial School at Aylsham, Norfolk. Industrial Schools were part of the justice system where young children would be sent if they were difficult to control or deemed out of control of their parents.
At some stage following his release from Aylsham, probably at the age of 16, Alfred arrived in Yorkshire were he took employment as a labourer at Moorside Farm, Denton, which was owned by William Ramsden. It was from Denton that he was conscripted into the Army in 1917 and joined the 331st Brigade Royal Field Artillery.
During the heavy fighting which took place after the start of the German Spring Offensive on 21st March 1918, the 331st Brigade were involved in supplying ammunition to other artillery batteries. At about this time Alfred was badly wounded and evacuated to the 1st South African General Hospital at Abbeville on the coast where on the 25th March 1918 he died.
On his grave his grieving mother, Ellen, would have carved “In loving memory of my darling son, Alfred. Forever in my thoughts, Mother”. This epitaph is all the more poignant because another son, Frederick, was killed just four days earlier on 21st March 1918.
Today Gunner Alfred Vertigan lies in Abbeville Communal Cemetery and is remembered with pride on our war memorial in Ilkley.

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