Alfred Ogden

War Service

Alfred enlisted as a Private in the Yorks and Lancaster Regiment on 3rd September 1914. He was said to be a miner who lived at 21, Earl Street, Fitzwilliam. On 10th September he was transferred to the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and served with the Anson Battalion from 22nd October 1914 until the day he suffered a shrapnel wound to the head on the 6th November 1917. He was taken to the 17th Casualty Clearing Station, Remy Siding, Belgium where he died of his wounds at 8.15am on 10th November and was buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery. He was awarded the 14 Star, Victory and British War Medals. In the Wakefield Express of November 17th 1917 it was reported:
“Mr J W Ogden of Potovens Lane, Wrenthorpe yesterday received official information that his son Able Seaman Alfred Ogden, of the Anson Battalion, R N Division died from a shrapnel wound of the head at a casualty clearing station on November 10th – deceased enlisted at Hemsworth, where he was employed at the colliery. He was 30 years of age and unmarried.”

Family Life

The Commonwealth war Graves Commission says Able Seaman KP/73 Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve Anson Battalion R.N. Div. was the son of John William and Emma Ogden of Calvert’s Buildings, Wrenthorpe, Wakefield.
Alfred Hawkshaw Ogden was born on 14th February 1887 and baptised at St Michael’s Wakefield on 12th October that year. They were living at New Scarborough at the time of his baptism, but in 1891 the family had moved to Milnthorpe next to the Walnut Tree Inn. John was a general labourer and they had another son Ernest who had been born in 1885.
They had moved again by the 1901 census and were living at Wild’s Buildings, Wrenthorpe. Alfred, at 14, was now an errand boy while his father and older brother Ernest worked in the foundry. John and Emma had had two more children Louisa (b 1892) and Florence (b 1896).
The family were still in Wrenthorpe in 1911 but Alfred was not with them and I can’t be sure where he was then.

Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery