| Notes |
- DO NOT MUDDLE WITH Albert Edward Featherstone BORN IN LINCOLNSHIRE WHO WAS KILLED IN September 1944
birth registration index Albert Edward Featherstone Sep 1895 Malling KEN 2a 654
mother's maiden surname Watts
Maidstone, Kent baptism 13 November 1895 Albert Edward son of James David and Amelia Jane Featherstone
1901 census RG13/741/104/37
Rochester Road, Burham Entire, Kent
James D Featherstone head M 37 cement miller Otham, Kent
Amelia J Featherstone wife M 34 Arsley, Bedfordshire
Winnie Featherstone dau 15 Burham, Kent
Alice A Featherstone dau 13 Woudham, Kent
James R Featherstone son 11 Wouldham, Kent
Albert E Featherstone son 5 Burham, Kent
Marguerite M Featherstone dau 2 Burham, Kent
Leonard Waldo Featherstone son 9months Burham, Kent
1911 census RG14/3973/257
Jessamine Cottages, Holborough Road, Snodland, Kent
James David Featherstone head 48 married cement miller Otham Kent
Amelia Jane Featherstone wife 45 married 25 years 6 children born alive 6 living Arlsey Bedford
Albert Edward Featherstone son S 15 paper bag printing Burham Kent
Marguerite May Featherstone daughter 12 school Burham Kent
Leonard Waldo Featherstone son 10 school Burham Kent
British Army WWI Pension Records 1914-1920
Short Service Attestation of 9589 Albert Featherstone Corps The Buffs
age 18 birth Parish Burham, near Rochester, Kent
occupation labourer
Oath taken and signed by magistrate 25 April 1911
height 5'8" weight 128lbs, fresh complexion, blue eyes, brown eyes, Congregationalist, mole on back of left arm.
Joined at Canterbury 29 April 1911
Wounded 29 October 1914 in leg (sent to Bristol Hospital)
Declared surplus to Military 28 May 1919 at Hounslow
Home address then 15 Hiltons Terrace, Lr Halling, Kent
Military History
home 24 April 1911
France 7 September 1914
England 29 October 1914
B E Force 7 March 1915
M E Force 23 October 1915
Home 30 April 1919 to 28 May 1919
father James Featherstone 3 Jessemine Cottages, Holboro Road, Snodland, Kent
mother Elizabeth. Brothers James elder and Leonard younger
Electoral Roll 1925 Surrey County Council
Parish of Frimley (south Ward)
7 Woodend Road
Albert Edward Featherstone
Mary Featherstone
Electoral Roll 1934
Surrey County Council Parish of Frimley (South Ward)
7 Woodend Road
Albert Edward Featherstone
Mary Featherstone
death registration index Albert E Featherstone Jun 1944 Aldershot SRY 2c 242 age 48
burials in the parish of Frimley in the county of Surrey 1944
Albert Edward Featherstone of Wood End Road, Blackdown June 29 age 48
see Featherstone Society Family News August 1999 for life story (p4)
Albert Edward Featherstone was born near Maidstone, Kent in 1896, and though he lived only 48 years, his life was an eventful one.
He grew up with his younger brother Leonard, and his sister Daisy, on the farm their father owned. As World War One cast a shadow on the future, it lured many young boys away from their everyday lives. Albert Featherstone was one such boy, enlisting at barely seventeen years of age to fight an unknown enemy, in an unknown land. Thereafter a falling out between the eldest son and his father occurred, due in part to the need the father had for both his sons to help run the farm. It culminated with the farm being left to the younger son, Leonard, on the sudden death of the father some years later.
Meanwhile Albert Featherstone traveled to countries he never new existed- Greece, Salonika, all rather exciting to a young idealist. But once the true horror of it was realised, it was too late to do anything but carry on. Around animals all his life, he soon befriended a large Airedale-type dog, which gave him some comfort during the long hours in filthy trenches. His escapades smuggling the dog on troop trains and into lodgings were legendary. Like many other soldiers of that war, he suffered the terrible effects of being gassed by mustard gas and bouts of malaria. Ultimately he was shot, being wounded six times through his abdomen and legs. Three of those bullets were to remain in him until his death thirty years later. His wounds earned him a commendation for bravery, received as they were in an attempt to raid a butcher's shop for meat to feed the men starving in the trenches. It also earned him a medical discharge home in 1916-17.
Recovering in military hospitals in Surrey may have been where he met his wife-to-be. for it was in Surrey that she worked in service for several years to a military family. She had come from Ireland, to find work to support her family suffering the effects of terrible poverty following the famine. A Catholic, and seven years his senior, they were certainly from different worlds and their marriage in 1918 must have driven a bigger wedge between father and son. Following a simple ceremony in a local Catholic Church, they rented a semi-detached house in Blackdown, a small town near Aldershot, Surrey. Here they would raise five children.
By all accounts jobs were scarce in the 1920's and Veterans' aid non-existent. In spite of weakened health, Albert found work on road constructions, then labouring on building sites. During the 1930's he drove a taxi for a living, as well as becoming an auxiliary policeman.
What time was left he spent raising chickens and rabbits to supplement his growing family's needs. With the dawning of the 1940's and World War Two, he joined the home guard.
Amidst the fruit and the vegetables was dug an underground bomb shelter. As the skies filled with the drone of German bombers, the family would huddle on dirt ledges with gasmasks and flasks of tea. They took in soldiers on leave- often bedding the children beneath the stairs in order to provide a room for paying guests. the kitchen became a soldier's laundry with mother and two eldest daughters washing and ironing for hours in the steamy room. Often bundles of clothing would remain unclaimed, as some young soldiers never made it back.
During this time, Albert Featherstone made a trip to Maidstone in Kent, with three of his children. His parents had long passed away, but he visited his sister Daisy. She and her husband and children lived above a sweet shop, which she ran.
Suddenly, on a sunny June day in 1944- destiny caught up with him. Riding his bicycle along a route often traveled, on his way to the market in Aldershot to buy baby chicks. An ironic death in the midst of a country devastated by bombing blitzes.
It is at this point that things become a little unclear. Several people noticed a man lying on the grass with a bicycle nearby. It being a hot sunny day many thought he was napping, or perhaps drunk- so nobody ventured closer. It was some hours before the police were notified, even longer before they notified the family. At the house they were told that Albert had suffered a heart attack. However, his wife and 24-year-old son were not permitted to view the body, due to the disturbing appearance of the deceased! Identity of the body is certified instead by a family friend, who later tells of the bruised appearance of the face being too upsetting for the family to see. the bicycle is never returned- and in the shock and grief of the moment is forgotten about by the family.
Since the road was a well traveled one, used heavily by Army vehicles of all sizes at that time. It is not unreasonable to conclude a collision could have occurred. Perhaps such an event would have gone unnoticed by such large vehicles as tanks and bren-gun carriers. Or, fearing repercussions with military and civilian police, people, concealed their involvement, perhaps even removing a damaged bike.
Military and medical records of this time are difficult to find- the confusion of wartime record keeping, I'm told. Therefore, all this is conjecture. However, one only has to imagine the public relations problem, which a small town suddenly filled with young soldiers from Canada, Australia and the United States of America, must have had. Certainly, tensions would have escalated, and as "ambassadors of goodwill" the Military would not have wanted such negative publicity.
Albert Edward Featherstone b.1869 -d.1944 .Article sent in by Peter Featherstone mem. no.58 Written by Diane Heathcote, who lives in Victoria BC. Canada.
Find A Grave memorial 210367816
Albert Edward Featherstone
born 26 July 1895 Burham, Tonbridge and Malling Borough, Kent
died 24 June 1944 (aged 48) Deepcut, Surrey Heath Borough, Surrey
buried St Peter's Churchyard, Frimley, Surrey Heath Borough, Surrey Section XIX.... Grave C 11
Albert Edward Featherstone was born in Burham in Kent on the 26th of July 1895 the son of James David Featherstone and his wife Amelia Jane (nee Watts).
In 1911 they were living in Snodland in Kent where his father worked as a cement miller and Albert was a paper bag printer. Soon after the 1911 census was taken Albert joined the army. He served in WW2 with the 2nd Battalion the East Kent Regiment (Buffs) in France and in Macedonia. While in Macedonia he was hospitalised several times at Salonika with malaria. He was discharged in 1919 with the rank of Corporal. In 1919 he married Mary Elizabeth Behan. Mary was born a Catholic and Albert was a Congregationalist. They had three children. The eldest Thomas Edward was born in Kent in 1921. Their daughters Sheila (1928) and Kathleen (1933) were born in Deepcut. In 1925 the family had moved to 7 Woodend Road in Deepcut. In 1939 Albert was working as a Trench Excavator. Albert died in Deepcut on the 24th of June 1944 and after a service held at the Catholic Church by Father Twomey he was buried at Frimley on the 29th of June 1944. Research: Mary Ann Bennett
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1895 - 1944 (48 years)
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