The name of Private Alfred Green seems to be missing from Paddock Wood War Memorial. But was it possible to find out anything about him? I became determined to investigate.
Press photograph of Alfred Green enhanced by AI
One day back in 2012 my husband and I stood and admired Paddock Wood War Memorial with its 50 names of men who had died during the First World War alongside the names of those added following World War Two.
During the September 2014 Heritage Weekend an exhibition organised by Paddock Wood Town Council was held in the Wesley Centre. It was called “Paddock Wood Remembers – the men who went to war”. Part of this exhibition featured posters on each of the men who died in the Great War and who were named on the War Memorials in Paddock Wood.
As Councillors, my husband John and I, assisted by Claire Stewart the Assistant Clerk of Paddock Wood Town Council attempted to identify all these soldiers. Knowing only a surname and an initial the research was carried out online and in the archives of the local newspapers held at Tunbridge Wells library.
It was intended that after the exhibition a book would be produced to preserve the research in perpetuity. But as with many things we were all busy people and the project was put on hold. In retrospect this was probably a good thing as so much more information about these people has become readily available in the interim period. Several soldiers had even been mis-identified!
Not until 2024, encouraged and helped by a group of friends, did I again start to go through all the data that had been collected. One of the documents I had been given was a World War One Roll of Honour from The Tunbridge Wells Courier and Advertiser which has been extremely helpful. One of the names identified was that of Alfred Green, described as a Paddock Wood resident who had been killed in action on 4th February 1917. However, his name did not appear on the Paddock Wood War Memorials.
I chose to investigate the story of Private Alfred Green which has not been an easy task. The majority of the First World War army records were destroyed by an incendiary bomb that hit the War Office warehouse in Walworth, south London on 7th September 1940. Of the 6.5 million records only 1.25 million were saved. Green’s was not among them.
Starting from only this information taken from the Kent and Sussex Courier 23 March 1917 I was able to track the early life of Alfred Green.
“Mrs Harris of Commercial Road, received official notice that her brother Private Alfred Green 37 was killed in France. He joined the Royal Fusiliers in July 1916 and was sent to the front in December (1916). He was formerly in the employ of Mr Kemp of Cranbrook and was grandson (sic) to Mr Green, builder of Paddock Wood.”
My next point of call was the Commonwealth War Graves website. According to their records Alfred Green died on 4 February 1917. He was in the 32nd Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) with the service number GS/52663 and was described as a Paddock Wood resident.
So, knowing he was definitely from Paddock Wood I used Find My Past to discover that Alfred Green was baptised on 11 August 1878 at Paddock Wood to Elias and Mary Ann Green, builder of Paddock Wood. He was living with his parents in Commercial Road, Paddock Wood until at least 1901 when he was described as an agricultural labourer. He was one of 11 children born to Elias and Mary in Paddock Wood and at times may have been known as Fred. I also discovered that Elias and his parents had moved to Paddock Wood in the 1850s so were long time residents of what was then a small village.
To date, no trace has been found of Alfred in 1911 although his widowed father and other family members were still living in Commercial Road, Paddock Wood.
“UK soldiers died in the Great War” records state that Alfred was a resident of Paddock Wood who enlisted in Canterbury. This is the only reference to Alfred having the service number Sp/5866 in the Royal Fusiliers. The initials Sp related to the Sportsmen’s battalions.
Alfred obviously transferred to the 32nd (East Ham) Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. In early 1917, the 32nd Battalion was serving on the Western Front in Flanders, near Ypres in Belgium. According to their official war diary the battalion spent February 1917 holding the front line at Vierstraat, just south of Ypres.
Alfred was killed in action on 4th February 1917 probably as a result of routine enemy sniper fire or trench mortar shelling.
He was buried at Klein-Vierstraat British Cemetery, near Ypres, Flanders, Belgium. The cemetery is 6 Kms south-west of Ieper town centre and contains 805 First World War burials, 109 of them unidentified, all from the First World War.
Why Alfred was not included on any of the Paddock Wood War Memorials is unknown. He was a Paddock Wood boy who should have been on the Memorial but maybe no-one in his family thought to put his name forward possibly because his mother was already dead. We will never know.
By Meryl Flashman of Heritage Paddock Wood.
Thanks go to Find My Past, Ancestry, the Commonwealth War Graves Commision and members of the Paddock Wood Community.
Picture enhanced by AI