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OUR WAR MEMORIAL
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This article was first published by the Pirton Magazine in May 2003, and is provided courtesy of the magazine, the editor Derek Jarrett. Further acknowledgments appear at the end of the article.
Albert Abbiss
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He
was very much a Pirton man. Born on 16th November 1887 he was the eldest son of
Frank and Elizabeth Abbiss and lived at 18 Great Green (nos. different to those
of today). When the 1901 census was taken, his parents, Frank & Elizabeth, were
both 42. Albert was 13 but already a ploughboy working on a local farm. In 1901
he had three siblings; Rose aged 9, Thomas 7, and Alice 4. The Abbiss' were a
large family in the village, no less than three houses on Great Green were
occupied by them.
He would certainly have attended Pirton school but after working on the land for a number of years he, along with 5 others from the village, decided to try their luck abroad. It would seem Albert was one of the group for whom a 'farewell service' was held at St. Mary's in March 1911, Albert was 23 at that time. A while later word came back to the village that this group of enterprising young men had crossed the Rocky Mountains and arrived at Westminster near to Vancouver on the west Canadian coast.
Albert does not seem to have married. Remarkably enough we have been able to reproduce an extract from his Attestation Papers, the document which he signed as his oath of allegiance on 13th March 1915. Like many young men in Canada he decided to fight in the Great War, Albert joining the 7th Battalion Canadian Infantry (British Columbia Regiment).
A year and two weeks after signing up, Albert was killed in
Belgium, He was buried in the Berks. Cemetery, Comines-Warneton in Hainaut,
Belgium (Burial ref. 3.B.20). The second of the heroes remembered on our
War Memorial.
Whilst Albert died in Belgium, both his parents are buried in St, Mary's churchyard. His mother, Elizabeth, died in 1936, his father Frank, aged 81 in 1940.
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**Thanks to Lynda Smith www.roll-of-honour.com, Jonty Wild www.pirton.org.uk, 'A Foot on Three Daisies', Michael Newbery, Hitchin Library for help with the text. Thanks to Chris Ryan for the photograph.
Points of contact are:
Pirton Website Jonty Wild via jontywild@pirton.org.uk
We would like to ask for your help, if you have any information, photographs or artefacts:
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For the remaining men yet to be included in a magazine article. |
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For any new information on those already published or following publication. |
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For men who survived the war. |
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If you have any photographs of soldiers from that war who you believe may be related to Pirton, but don't know who they are |
Please get in touch jontywild@pirton.org.uk
Also if anyone would like copy of any Pirton WW1 war grave or memorial please contact Jonty Wild, digital copies for personal use will be provided free of charge to relatives, photographs can be provided for a small charge.
