BORN LEEDS 1897. ORIGINAL HULL PAL. HE WAS THE FIRST TO JOIN THE 10TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. HE DIED AT HIS POST ON 04/06/1916, AGED 19. POPULAR WITH HIS UNIT AN AUCTION WAS HELD AND A £1 POSTAL ORDER WAS SENT TO HIS GRIEVING FAMILY. HIS NAME IS LISTED ON THE BEAN STREET, AND ST MATTHEWS CHURCH ROLL OF HONOUR, BOULEVARD. HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, ON 30/06/1916. * HIS TWO BROTHERS ALSO SERVED. ONE OF THEM FOUGHT FOR THE CANADIANS.
Hull Pals Memorial Post: Born July 1897 in Leeds, Albert was the seventh of nine children to Hugh and Sarah Blakemore of 9, King’s Cross Avenue, Bean Street, Hull. He enlisted at Hull City Hall in the first week of September 1914 joining the fledgling 10th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Commercials’, 1st Hull Pals. He lied about his age. At that point he had just turned 17 and was too young to serve. Perhaps he looked older, or perhaps the Recruiting Sergeant gave him a wink and told him to walk round the block and come back when he was 19. It wouldn’t be the first time this happened….or the last.
Albert served in Egypt before shipping to France in March 1916 and on to the trenches of the Western Front. He was killed in action during the 70 minute pinpoint bombardment of front line trenches around Beaumont Hamel. The Battalion History records: “The front line trenches were blown in almost beyond recognition, scarcely a fire-bay remained intact. As expected casualties came readily, but the men stood up heroically to a rain of shells to which they could not reply”. When the shelling subsided there came the horrific job of removing the corpses of friends. The included John Henry Monday, aged 20 and Arthur Ernest West, aged 21, who lived a few yards from Albert, in Bean Street, back home. It is inconceivable that these three men did not know each other. Perhaps they were huddled on the same fire-step. We’ll never know. They died together on the 4th June 1916 and are remembered together on St Matthews Chruch ww1 Memorial, Boulevard, Hull.
Albert Blakemore is buried in Sucrerie Military Cemetery; he was 19 years old. Still too young to have been there at all.
