BORN HULL 1896. SON OF EDWARD TENNISON (1853-1936 & LAURA PLUMMER (1865-1941), OF 109 GREAT THORNTON STREET, HULL. HE HAD TWO BROTHERS AND ONE SISTER. A CHEMIST ASSISTANT. HE ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE ALFRED TENNISON 11/822. Born in March 1896, Alfred was the youngest of four children to Edward and Laura Tennison of 109 Great Thornton Street, Hull. A Chemist’s Assistant before the war, he joined the queues outside City Hall in the heady days of September 1914 to join the ranks of the fledgling Pals Battalions. Hull raised four such battalions, the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th Battalions East Yorkshire Regiment; and had the largest volunteer rate per head of population of all participating cities. The 10th were ‘The Commercials’, originally for men with proper professions, clerks and the like, men who considered themselves Middle Class. The 11th was ‘The Tradesmen’, the 12th ‘The Sportsmen’ and the 13th rather ingloriously ‘T’Others’. Alfred joined the 11th. After serving in Egypt over Christmas 1915, The Pals were transferred to the Western Front and it was here Alfred was killed in action on 17th April 1916. He is buried at Sucrerie Military Cemetery, Somme, France; a young man of 20.
Pte Tennison’s death was recorded in the Hull Daily Mail of May 10th 1916. Interestingly the Battalion’s War Diary entry for the day he died is “One private accidently killed – situation normal – heavy rain and trenches waterlogged.”
The Hull Daily News also reported Alfred’s demise on 11th May 1916.
His elder brother, Private, Robert Tennison, 4th EYR, was also killed in the war, aged 31
