Albert Edward Court was born on the 4th December 1887 in Woolwich to parents Joseph Ernest and Susannah. Joseph was born in early 1850 and was a carpenter, following in the footsteps of his father, who was a joiner. Joseph was born in Maidstone, but his family moved to Croydon by the time he was ten years old. He was a widower when he married Albert’s mother Susannah, but the details of this prior marriage are not known. Albert’s mother, Susannah Mason, was about a year older than his father, being born around 1849 in Purfleet, Essex. Susannah’s family moved to Woolwich sometime between 1861 and 1871, her father was a coffee house keeper and it could be that this is where she met Joseph. Joseph and Susannah were married on the 15th July 1876 at St Mary Magdalene in Woolwich. Their address is recorded as 1 Bell Water Gate, which was Susannah’s parent’s house.
Joseph and Susannah spent the first two years of their married life in Thornton Heath, Croydon, where their first son Percy Ernst was born in around 1878. By 1880 they had moved to Charlton and had a daughter, also called Susannah. They stayed in Charlton less than a year before moving to 32 Kidd Street in Woolwich Dockyard. The family remained in the Woolwich and Plumstead area, but moved at least three more times. In 1891 they lived at 12 Albion Road, Woolwich; by 1897 they have moved to 105 Park Road. By the 1901 census the family had moved to 93 Orchard Road, where they still lived in 1911.
After Joseph and Susannah moved to Woolwich their second daughter, Louisa, was born in 1891. They had a total of ten children together, but tragically four of these died. There is a gap of six years between the birth of Louisa and that of their next surviving child William, born on the 5th July 1886. It seems likely that at least some of the four children were born during this time. Albert was born less than a year after William, on the 4th June 1887, followed by Daisy in c1890 and Joseph on the 11th July 1893. Albert and Joseph were baptised on the same day, 20th August 1893, in St Mary Magdalene, the church where their parents were married. It is known that Daisy, who appears to be the last child born, sadly died in April 1900 at the age of ten.
Albert received schooling, first at Wood Street Public Elementary School, and then at Earl Street School (later renamed Earl Rise School then South Rise School), where he enrolled at nine years of age on the 5th July 1897, along with his older brother William, who was ten. As was normal for the time, by 1901 William had left school (aged 14) to become a metal worker.
Albert was the last of Joseph and Susannah’s children to leave home, he was still living with them at 93 Orchard Road at the time of the 1911 census, but by 1915 he was living at 44 Raydene Road, Plumstead. He was working as a butcher, so it is likely that he lived near his place of employment.
Albert enlisted in the army at Woolwich on 11th December 1915, aged 28. He is described as being in good physical condition, measuring 5ft 7½” tall and weighing 143lbs. Albert embarked for France on the 28th August 1916, landing at Le Herve, where he joined the 16th Battalion of The Rifle Brigade. The battalion were involved in action during the Battles of the Somme (1st July to 18th November 1916) including the fighting on the Ancre, The Battle of Thiepval Ridge, The Battle of the Ancre heights and the capture of the Schwaben Redoubt and Stuff Trench as well as The Battle of the Ancre.
In mid-December 1916 Albert contracted acute nephritis (inflammation of the kidney). He was sent to a field hospital on the 22nd December 1916 and then transferred to a hospital in England on Christmas Day. On 6th April he was sent for rehabilitative training at the Command Depot at Sutton Coldfield, where he would spend over three months. During this period he was sent to a general hospital in Birmingham for seven weeks for treatment for haemorrhoids. He finally returned home on the 26th June 1917.
Albert returned to France on the 24th July 1917, he moved to the field on the 12th August and joined the Rifle Brigade 2nd Battalion on the 20th August. At some point he was made an unpaid Lance Corporal, but the exact date is unknown. He was killed in action in the field on the 17th November 1917, at the age of 29 (although the Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists his age as 28). However, no major battles took place on that date, the Battle of Cambrai started the following day, but the battalion is not recorded as taking part in the battle.
Albert is remembered at the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium. The Tyne Cot Memorial is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. The Salient stretched from Langemarck in the north to the northern edge in Ploegsteert Wood in the south, but it varied in area and shape throughout the war. The battles of the Ypres Salient claimed many lives on both sides and it quickly became clear that the commemoration of members of the Commonwealth forces with no known grave would have to be divided between several different sites. Casualties from the United Kingdom after 16th August 1917 (with some exceptions) and New Zealand servicemen are named on the memorial at Tyne Cot, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war.
The Tyne Cot Memorial now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage and F.V. Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett on 20th June 1927. The memorial forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which was established around a captured German blockhouse or pill-box used as an advanced dressing station. The original battlefield cemetery of 343 graves was greatly enlarged after the Armistice when remains were brought in from the battlefields of Passchendaele and Langemarck, and from a few small burial grounds. It is now the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world in terms of burials.
By 1919 just four of Joseph and Susannah’s ten children were still alive. The Statement of Relatives for Albert recorded in September 1919, which listed currently living relatives, states that he had two brothers – Percy and another whose name is illegible – and two sisters, Susannah and Louisa, living in Plumstead and Charlton respectively (both appear to be unmarried). Joseph and Susannah had moved to Welling by this time and were living at 1 Armstrong Cottages.
It is known that Albert’s younger brother Joseph enlisted in the Army in September 1910 when he was just 17 years old, and served for five years before being discharged in September 1915 after contracting typhoid. However, it is unclear what happened to him after this or if he is the other brother listed on Albert’s Statement of Relatives.
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