Address / Local links: 93 Berwick Road, Welling
Family / Relatives: Son of Edward and Sarah Jane. Husband of Charlotte Bessie Tinker, of Welling
Dainville Communal Cemetery, France
Dainville is a village in the Department of the Pas-de-Calais on the western outskirts of Arras. The Communal Cemetery is on the road to Arras. It is here that our Alfred William Tinker lies buried…
The cemetery is primarily known as a WW1 burial site – “Occasional burials were made in the communal cemetery at Dainville between March 1916, when Commonwealth forces took over this part of the front, and April 1918, when the Germans began their great advance”.
The communal cemetery contains 38 Commonwealth burials of the First World War. There is also one Second World War burial from May 1940.
This is our man, and this is his story…
His story is not the easiest to unravel, as he and his family seem to have led peripatetic lives – Alfred was born in 1906 in Canada according to some sources, in Detroit Michigan in the USA according to others.
His mother, Sarah Jane (nee Baker) died four years later in July 1910 in Detroit, aged 30. She had been born in Deptford, baptised in Plumstead and married Edward Tinker here in 1901. Their first son, Edward Thomas Tinker (1902-1956) was born in Plumstead, but within a few years the family had left for the new world, with Edward snr working as an iron foundry moulder. Interestingly, it seems that Sarah Jane returned to England in September 1907 and gave birth to Arthur Ernest Tinker (1908-1972) in Plumstead in January 1908; within a few months however, they were back in the USA, and within two more years poor Sarah Jane had passed away.
Edward snr, it seems, was now living in Detroit with his older brother and his three infant sons – a full house…
Apparently he soon found a new partner, Gertrude Gallagher, as a document lists the family as travelling back to England in the summer of 1914 with Gertrude listed as his ‘wife’ – although it appears that they did not actually marry until 1924 in Stockport, and a daughter – Olive – was born that same year. Soon afterwards the whole family returned to America. Gertude died in 1954.
Edward snr died in 1958 in Canada – intriguingly his memorial tablet in the Oshawa Union Cemetery says ‘Beloved husband of M Ethelreda Ward’ so clearly there are still more stories to discover here…
Meanwhile, we know a little more about our own Alfred. Early records show him at some stage living at 21 Parkdale Road Plumstead with his maternal grandparents.
In early 1928 he married Charlotte Bessie (Lottie) Jackson (1909 – 1996), a local girl in Woolwich, and they had two children; Mollie Elizabeth in 1931 and Keith in 1937. From around 1937 to the outbreak of war they lived at 93 Berwick Road, Welling, although interestingly the 1939 Register has no-one living there; the children were in Essex (possibly as evacuees?) and Lottie was working as a Telephone cord machinist in Woolwich.
Berwick Road was part of the town’s ‘hutments estate’ – a rough and ready community of homes built during WW1 to house munitions workers, but which continued for many years afterwards…
After Alfred’s death in 1940, Lottie remarried twice – first to Reginald Mason in 1941 and then to Joseph E Burniston in 1975. She died in 1996.
Both Mollie Elizabeth and Keith continued to live in around Bexley for some years after the war – it may have been through them that Alfred’s name was registered on our local St. Michael’s East Wickham Church Memorial Tablet.
92 Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, and the retreat to Dunkirk
Sergeant Alfred Tinker was killed during the British army’s desperate retreat to Dunkirk in May 1940…
One of Alfred’s regimental colleagues later wrote “We, the 92nd Field Regiment R.A., had the dubious honour of being the first British troops to land in France in September 1939 and the last to leave Belgium, on 2nd June 1940.
After the phoney war we waited for the real war to start, which it did on the 10th May 1940, and from then on, the German army chased us from pillar to post around Northern France and Belgium.”…
The Battle of Arras
“On 17th May 1940, following the B.E.F.’s ‘Plan D’ the 92nd Regiment crossed into Belgium and moved to Neder Hasselt, about 20 miles West of Brussels. On the 18th May 1940, the Regiment moved back to Slettem and went into its first action, firing some 2,000 rounds on the night of 18/19th May 1940.
The 92nd Regiment went into action north of Givenchy to support infantry holding the line of the River Scarpe north of Arras. Enemy aircraft were active and there was much bombing and machine-gunning. At 13.00 hrs on 21st May 1940 the Regiment supported 150 Infantry Brigade’s attack around the south-west of Arras. The advance went well at first but then the French on the right withdrew and allowed a German tank attack on the right flank to pass.”
Our Alfred must have been killed during these bitter encounters…
“By 1st June 1940 the 92nd Regiment was 2 miles southeast of St Malo les Bains and remained in action until the evening. All surplus men were sent to the beach. At 22.30 hrs orders came to destroy the guns and all remaining personnel were to march to the beach. About two thirds of the Regiment embarked from the Dunkirk beach during the night of 1st/2nd June and the remainder spent an uncomfortable day on the beach and in cellars at St Malo les Bains. During the night of 2/3rd June 1940 the rest of the Regiment got away.”
Sgt Alfred Tinker was one of those who did not get away…the final documentary details we have of him are his probate records;
“Probate effects £492 to Charlotte Bessie Mason married woman. Died on war service”
Pictured are the hutments (Alfred’s pre-war home), the 92nd Field Regiment Royal Artillery (thought to be pre-war 1939 at Woolwich, so it’s quite possible that Alfred may be one of them?), a military record of his death, and his headstone at the Dainville Communal Cemetery, France.
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If anyone is able to add any extra information, provide more family details, or suggest any corrections, please let us know – also, if anyone has any more photos of this individual listed on our memorials, please get in touch. Thank you.
Commemorated
- St. Michael’s East Wickham Church Memorial Tablet
- Dainville Communal Cemetery, Franc
This story has been researched by volunteers. We have taken every effort to ensure its accuracy. If you are related to Alfred William Tinker, or if you have any further information, please do get in touch.