Today We Remember

Albert Edward STEWART
Service no. 19512

Private, 5th Battalion,
The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

Family Background

Albert would have been at least living in Aynho at the outbreak of the First World War, because otherwise he would not have been listed on the Memorial. Sadly we have absolutely no information about his family – neither where they lived nor what they did. This is because his family is not covered by the official census of both 1901 and 1911; in the later one Albert would have only been 16.  It is likely that he was a young agricultural worker and was lodging with a family. When the 1921 census is released we may be able to find out some more.

All we know is that he enlisted at Oxford and served as a private soldier with the “The Ox and Bucks”. Perhaps he was a mate of Edward Seccull and went along with him, rather than heading to the Northamptonshire Regiment or the Warwickshire Regiment.

He has no known grave but his name appears on Pier and Face 10A and 10D of the Thiepval Memorial. The memorial is reserved for those missing, or unidentified, soldiers who have no known grave. 72,195 British and South African names are recorded on Edwin Lutyens’ memorial. It was inaugurated in 1932.