BORN HULL 1893. ELDEST SON OF ALBERT ROBERT THURNELL (1871-1932) & ANNIE AMELIA JENNISON (1871-1951), AT 14 WENTWORTH AVENUE, FIELD STREET, HULL AND 22 PEMBERTON STREET, HULL. SON OF A LABOURER. ONE OF SIX CHILDREN. HE WORKED ON HULL’S TOWN DOCKS. HE MARRIED HELEN LISTER IN HULL, IN 1912. ENLISTED IN THE 11TH HULL PALS. KILLED IN ACTION, AT OPPY WOOD, ON 03/05/1917, AGED 23. HIS NAME IS LISTED ON PEMBERTON STREET MEMORIAL HIS ARMY EFFECTS WERE LEFT TO HIS WIDOW, HELEN. HIS BROTHER, PRIVATE, WILLIAM THURNELL, WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT, WAS KILLED ON 02/04/1916, AGED 18.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE ALBERT ROBERT THURNELL 11/1270. Born in July 1893, Albert was the eldest of six children to Albert and Annie Thurnell of 14 Wentworth Avenue, Field Street, Hull. A Labourer by trade, he married Helen Lister in October 1912. When war came he enlisted at City Hall joining the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Tradesmen’, 2nd Hull Pals. A veteran of Egypt and the Somme, Albert was killed in action as the Pals attacked Oppy Wood in the small hours of 3rd May 1917. Like so many of his comrades that day, his body was never recovered and his name is commemorated on the Arras Memorial. His was the second death poor Albert and Annie Thurnell had to endure. Their younger son, George William, appears to have enlisted under his middle name as he was underage. ‘William’ Thurnell was killed in action on 2nd April 1916 serving with the 11th Battalion Prince of Wales Own West Yorkshire Regiment. And worse was to come, their youngest son Ernest Victor died in September 1918 at home in Hull, he was just 14. By the time of the Armistice, all their sons were gone.
