Albert Owen Perkin

   Cause of his death was Killed in Action - WW #1.

  Research Information:

Casualty Details:

Name: PERKIN, ALBERT OWEN

Initials: A O
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry
Unit Text: 1st/4th Bn.
Age: 25

Date of Death: 25/08/1916
Service No: 6107

Additional information: Son of Richard and Betsy Perkin, of Holsworthy; husband of Plena G. Westlake (formerly Perkin), of Highway, Jacobstow, St. Gennys, Holsworthy, Devon.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: IV. H. 6.
Cemetery: POZIERES BRITISH CEMETERY, OVILLERS-LA BOISSELLE

Cemetery Details:

Cemetery: POZIERES BRITISH CEMETERY, OVILLERS-LA BOISSELLE
Country: France
Locality: unspecified

Location Information:

Pozieres is a village some 6 kilometres north-east of Albert, and the Cemetery, which is enclosed by the Pozieres Memorial, is a little south-west of the village on the north side of the main road, D929, from Albert to Pozieres.

Historical Information:

The village of Pozieres was attacked on 23 July 1916 by the 1st Australian and 48th (South Midland) Divisions, and was taken on the following day. It was lost on 24-25 March 1918, during the great German advance, and recaptured by the 17th Division on the following 24 August. Plot II of POZIERES BRITISH CEMETERY contains the original burials of 1916, 1917 and 1918, carried out by fighting units and field ambulances. The remaining plots were made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields immediately surrounding the cemetery, the majority of them of soldiers who died in the Autumn of 1916, but a few represent the fighting in August 1918. There are now 2,760 Commonwealth servicemen buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 1,380 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 23 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. The cemetery is enclosed by the POZIERES MEMORIAL, which relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died in France during the Fifth Army area retreat on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918. The Corps and Regiments most largely represented are The Rifle Brigade with over 600 names, The Durham Light Infantry with approximately 600 names, the Machine Gun Corps with over 500, The Manchester Regiment with approximately 500 and The Royal Horse and Royal Field Artillery with over 400 names. The cemetery and memorial were designed by W H Cowlishaw.

No. of Identified Casualties: 1381

  Medical Information:

U.K. Soldiers Who Died in the Great War, 1914-1919

Name: Albert Perkin

Birth Place: Holsworthy, Devon
Residence: Holsworthy
Death Date: 25 Aug 1916
Enlistment Location: Ashwater, Devon
Rank: Private
Regiment: Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
Battalion: 1/4 Battalion.
Number: 6107

Type of Casualty: Killed in action

Theater of War: Aldershot

Albert married Plena G. Westlake. (Plena G. Westlake was born in Highway, Jacobstow, St. Gennys, Holsworthy, Devon, England.)