Alfred Lee Hale was born on the 13 January 1883 in St Pancras, Middlesex (now Greater London), a son of Joseph Hale (1844-1898) and Ellen Louisa Hale née Gaymer (1849-1899). His birth was registered in the 1st quarter of 1883 in the St Giles Registration District, Middlesex. He was admitted to the Camden Street School, 29 Camden Street, London, N.W.1 on 18 October 1886 and the family were living at this time at 4 King’s Place, Camden. (King's Place has since been renamed as Plender Street). On 13 October 1890 he was transferred to the King Street School and the family were by then living at 11 King’s Place, Camden, London.
On the 1891 census he was shown as aged 7 years, still residing at 11 King's Place, Camden, with his parents and five of his siblings: Emily Hale (1877-1918); Edith Hale (b.1881); Henry Hale (b.circa 1886); James Hale (b. circa 1888) and Walter Hale (b.1890).
He was shown on the 1901 census as Alfred L. Hale, aged 17 years, a general labourer and the brother-in-law of the head of the house, a Thomas Henry Crean (1875-1944), a 27-years-old carman who had married Emily Hale the previous year. Also on the census were: Emily Crean; Henry Hale - an errand boy; James Hale and Walter Hale.
In 1903 he enlisted in The Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment), service number L/8844 and at the end of his service he was discharged and held on their reserve list. In December 1911 he was appointed as a Postman in north-west London and transferred to the London Western District Office in July 1912.
On the outbreak of the First World War he was recalled to his old regiment and served in the 4th Battalion, Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment). His medal card shows that he entered France on 14 August 1914 and that his death was subsequently presumed. However, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website site states that he died 9 days later on 23 August 1914, aged 31 years and that his body was buried in Plot III, Row A, Grave 18 in the St Symphorien Military Cemetery, Rue Nestor Dehon 32, 7030 Mons, Belgium.
The UK Army Register of Soldiers Effects confusingly shows him as Corporal Alfred Hilton, alias Alfred Lee Hale of the 4th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, who died of wounds on 30 August 1914 with a pencilled ringed entry of 23 August 1914. It states that his army effects totalling £6-14s-8d was split between seven of his surviving siblings: Benjamin Hale; Henry Hale; Sophia Lynch; Emily Crean; Edith Bond; Benjamin Hale and James Hale on 26 August 1916. When his £6-0s-0d war gratuity was dispersed it was done by sending £3-8s-4d to his brother Marcus on 16 December 1919 and the remaining £2-11s-8d being split between Thomas Crean, Henry Hale and Edith Bond on 13 March 1920. He was posthumously awarded the 1914 Star with the '5th Aug-22nd Nov 1914' Clasp, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
He is shown as 'HALE, A. L.' on the Western Postal District war memorial at Mount Pleasant, London, WC1. He is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website, on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website, on the A Street Near You website, on the London WW1 Memorial website, on the Royal British Legion's Everyone Remembered website and on page 159 of the Post Office Fellowship of Remembrance's Book of Remembrance 1914-1920.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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