Albert Marsh

War Service

Private Albert Marsh joined the 3rd battalion of the Coldstream guards in July 1911, service number (9163).
He was signed up in Wakefield, then went to army school at Caterham in Surrey, gaining certificates in Swimming, Musketry 2nd Class, Signalling 1st class and Education 3rd Class. Character Very Good.  Albert is described as a smart intelligent and a very hardworking man, he had been employed as a battalion signaller.
He served on home soil for three years until June 1914.
In August of that same year, he was recalled for active service and mobilized to London. Then he joined the Expeditionary force overseas, he was killed in Houthhulst Forest, Belgium on the 9th of October 1917. 
 Movements of the 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards
The 3rd Battalion of the Coldstream guards were a regular unit, of the British army. They were based at Chelsea barracks, Aldershot, when war broke out August in 1914. They proceeded to France with the British expeditionary force and were in action at the Battle of the Mons and the subsequently retreat, The battle of Marne, The battle of the Aisne, First Battle of Ypres. They took part in the winter operations of 1914-15, The Battle of Aubers, The Battle of Loos, on the 25th of August they transferred to the 2nd (Guards) Brigade of the same Division. During 1916 the fought the Battle of Albert, The Battle of Bezentin, The Battle of Pozieres, The Battle of Flers-Courcelette, The Battle of Morval. In 1917 they saw action during the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, The second Battle of Passchendaele. In 1918 they fought the Battle of Estaires, The Battle of Hazerouck, The Battle of Bethune, The battle of Drocourt – Quean, The Battle of Epehy, The Battle of the Saint Quentin Canal, The Battle of Beaurevoir, The Battle of the Selle, The Battle of the Sombre. The 3rd Coldstream’s were near Maubeuge in France when Armistice was declared. 
Albert is remembered on the Zonnebeke- Arrondissement Leper, West Flanders (West Vlaanderen) Belgium).
Tyne Cot Memorial.
Also remembered on the Wrenthorpe Colliery Memorial, in St. Johns Church Graveyard, Wakefield.
Medals he earned - Victory Medal, British War Medal and Memorial Death Plaque World War 1.

Family Life

Albert Marsh was born on 11th January 1888, Jockey Fold, Leeds Road, Newton Hill, Wakefield, to George Henry Marsh, coal miner and Elizabeth Jane Fawcett formerly Trippet, they lived on Leeds Road, Newton Hill, Wakefield.
Albert had two Stepbrothers Joseph William Fawcett (1867-1936) who subsequently went to live in America, and James Edward Fawcett (1869- 1886) 
Albert had one older sister called Emma Taylor “nee” Marsh born in 1885, in Howdenclough, Emma passed away in 1910 leaving a husband and two children.
Albert’s mother passed away in 1905.
George Henry Marsh subsequently remarried, and later resided in Wrenthorpe.
At the age of thirteen Albert became a chemist’s errand boy.
After a couple of years, he started working at Wrenthorpe Colliery and was still working there until 1911.
 

Tyne Cot Memorial