648th Agricultural Company, Labour Corps
Alfred Burford (who may have also had the middle name of Henry) was born in the Stroud district in the third quarter of 1884.
At the time of the 1901 Census he was living in Nailsworth, with his widowed mother and his occupation was noted as a brewer’s bottler.
On 18 July 1903 he married Eliza Elizabeth Hannah Ball at Stroud and the couple went on to have seven daughters, born between 1906 and 1918. The family lived at Chamber’s Court, Horsley Road, Nailsworth.
At the time of the 1911 Census Alfred had become a ‘roads foreman’ and that was the occupation he gave at the time of his enlistment into the Army.
His Army Service Record has survived at the National Archives but in an extremely damaged condition, such that only the basic details of his service can be ascertained.
It would appear that he attested for military service on 6 June 1916 and was placed on the Reserve List. Mobilisation occurred on 11 July 1916, at the age of 32 years and nine months. His first posting was to the 5 Battery, 7 Reserve Brigade, Royal Field Artillery (with number 157338). here is no evidence of any service abroad and it seems likely that there were doubts about his fitness as, on 30 June 1917, he was transferred to 677 Employment Company, Labour Corps, at Bordon Camp in Hampshire. His Attestation papers are stamped ‘B1’. Employment Companies were normally made up of tradesmen, who performed various regimental duties in the UK. On 20 August 1918 he was posted to 648 Agricultural Company, another arm of the Labour Corps, who assisted with work on the land, where he acquired the number 235918, this was after a period of sick leave in June 1918.
It is not known at what point he was discharged from the Army, if indeed that were the case. He died on 25 February 1919, aged 34, at Northfield Nursing Home, Uplands, Stroud; the cause of death appears to have been a brain haemorrhage. His widow was granted an Army widow’s pension, of 46 shillings and 3 pence per week (£2.32) to help keep the large family: by the time the CWGC register was compiled she had re-married, becoming Mrs Dowdeswell.
Alfred Burford was buried in Shortwood Baptist Chapel Cemetery, where a CWGC headstone now marks his grave.
Researched by Graham Adams 22 January 2014