Alfred Bertie Steward was born in 1887 to William Alfred and Eliza, née Inge. His father was a gardener from Ipswich in Suffolk (1860-1929) and his mother was from Little Yeldham in Essex, where the couple had married in 1884.
William and Eliza settled in the Woolwich/Greenwich area. Their two first sons were born in Charlton, Ernest (registered as William Ernest) on 26th July 1885 and Alfred Bertie in 1887. Another son followed 2 years later in Greenwich, Albert Edward (1889/90). At the time of the 1891 census, they were living at 6 Sun Garden Cottages in Old Dover Road in Greenwich.
They moved to Plumstead where Robert Ambrose was born in 1893 and John Leonard in 1897 followed at last by a girl Kate born in 1899. That same year, one of the boys, Albert, died aged 9. That must have been a terrible time for the family. The 1901 census shows them at 56 Red Lion Lane, near Shooters Hill. Soon after they moved again, this time to the Welling area where another of their sons, John Leonard, died aged 4 (in 1902).
The year 1909 was another sad year for the family: Eliza the mother died. She was only 51.
The father William Alfred became a lodger with his 2 younger children, Robert and Kate, to James and Amy Lampkin in Glengall Cottages in Shooters Hill. By 1911, Alfred Bertie had joined the Army, recorded at the time of the census in the 1st battalion of the King’s Own (Royal Lancaster) Regiment, in Woolwich, while his older brother Ernest had joined the Royal Navy.
Alfred, as Private No. 8882, followed his regiment to France quite early in the war. On 14th August 1914 the 1st Battalion Kings Own (Royal Lancaster) Regiment was part of the 12th Brigade of the 4th Division, it was in Dover and landed in Boulogne on 23rd August 1914. The Battle of the Somme began on 1st July 1916 and the regiment was then in the region of Serre. The King’s Own was the third Regiment to go in at 08.45AM.
Alfred was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, like so many soldiers on that fateful day, 1st July 1916. His body was not recovered. He is commemorated with thousands of his comrades on the Thiepval memorial in France. Back home, his name was put on the St John’s Welling Memorial and on the St Michael’s in East Wickham. Tragically, his brother Ernest was killed in action just one month before.
Twelve days before he died Alfred wrote a soldier’s will: “In the event of my death I leave all I possess to my father William Alfred Steward of 3 Armstrong Cotts. Belle Grove, Welling, Kent, England including 32£ in Post Office Savings Bank.”
His Medal Roll indicates that he received not only the 14 Star Medal but also the Victory Medal and the British Medal. The 14-Star Medal, known as the Mons star, was given to men who had been fighting in France or in Belgium between the 5th August and the 22nd November 1914, that is until the end of the 1st Battle of Ypres.
The death of his eldest sons just within one month and one day must have been terrible for the father. Of the 5 sons he fathered, William Alfred lost 4, and not as babies but either as young children of school age (in 1899, Albert aged 9, and in 1902, John Leonard aged 4) or as grown up men doing their duty for King and country (both died in great battles of WWI). He died in 1929, at the age of 68.
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