Special thanks to Norfolk Libraries
Private Alfred Albert Vicary
5th (Service) Battalion, The Duke of Edinburgh's (Wiltshire Regiment)
Died of Wounds
Date of Birth: 2 January 1900
Place of Birth: Teignmouth, Devon
Date of Death: 7 April 1916 aged 16
Buried: Remembered on Basra War Memorial, Iraq; and on Salisbury Roll of Honour.
Awarded the 1914-15 Star, the British war Medal and the Victory Medal
Private Alfred Albert Vicary age16.
Alfred was one of the youngest local casualties of the First World War.
He was born at Teignmouth on the 2 January 1900, and baptised on 28 February at St. James' Church, son of Arthur, a baker, and Susan Vicary.
His father Arthur, also born in Teignmouth, was a pre-war regular soldier, his mother Susan was born in Ireland.
In 1901 the family was living at 18 Chapel Street, Teignmouth.
Enlisting at Salisbury and stating that he was resident there he enlisted with the Wiltshire Regiment.
The medal card for Alfred shows his service number as 19545, that he was awarded the 1915 Star and entered the theatre of war on 3 December 1915, this makes him 15 years of age.
Wiltshire Regiment cap badge
He died of wounds while serving with the 5th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment at the 19th Casualty Clearing Hospital of the Indian Expeditionary Force “D”, on the 7 April 1916.
Remembered on Basra War Memorial, Iraq; and on Salisbury Roll of Honour.
Alfred’s father Arthur William Eades Vicary, born in Teignmouth, had served with Army Service Corps from 1885 for 21 years; he re-enlisted in September 1914 with Royal Army Service Corps and served until 1919.
The Basra Memorial commemorates more than 40,500 members of the Commonwealth forces who died in the operations in Mesopotamia from the Autumn of 1914 to the end of August 1921 and whose graves are not known.
The Seige of Kut
In December 1915, in Mesopotamia (Modern Iraq), a British-Indian garrison in the town of Kut was put under siege by the Turks. The already weakened defenders were soon starving and sickness became rife.
The 5th Battalion of the Wiltshire regiment left Eygpt for Mesopotamia in January 1916 as part of the force sent to relieve the garrison. They suffered heavy losses in unsuccessful battles.
A view across part of Kut. A bomb damaged minaret and a British Union Jack flying from a flagpole. © IWM (Art.IWM ART 2436)
The relief force was called the Tigris Corps, Alfred's battalion were in the 13th Division. It was the strongest unit available, so became the spearhead of the attempt to relieve the Kut garrison and attacked the Ottomans at Fallahiya on April 5-6 1916.
Alfred was wounded around that time and died on April 7 1916.
Mounds of earth marking the graves of the British in Kut. Bluejackets of the Royal Navy stationed at Kut have collected empty shrapnel cases from the old trenches and placed one on all known spots where dead are buried. © IWM (Q 24534)
The Tigris Corps made several attempts between January and March 1916, to lift the siege of Kut al-Amara; all of which were unsuccessful.
The garrison surrended on the 29 April 1916 and 13,000 men were taken into captivity and marched away. A third died from disease, maltreatment and malnutrition.
"None of them fit to march five miles ... full of dysentery, beri-beri, scurvy, malaria and enteritis; they had no doctors, no medical stores and no transport.
The hot weather, just beginning, would have meant much sickness and many deaths, even among troops who were fit, well-cared for and well supplied.".
Geoffrey Elton, historian and war poet
(He saw the men being marched away)
This emaciated Indian soldier was photographed after he had been liberated during an exchange of prisoners. © IWM (Q 79446)
We know of seven local men who were at Kut, 3500 miles from home.
Six were in the Tigris Corps, the force sent to relieve the garrison:
Private Alfred Albert Vicary of Teignmouth, aged 16, died of wounds.
Private Robert Dewhurst of Teignmouth died of disease four days after the garrison surrendered.
Major Ernest Bird Barratt of Teignmouth was wounded in the battle, taken prisoner and died of his wounds.
Major Frederick William Birch of Shaldon died of wounds in the Battle of Hanna.
Private James Lambe of Shaldon, was believed to have been taken prisoner when the garrison surrrended and died later.
Private William Alfred Prowse of Teignmouth, was part of the Garrison force when Kut had been retaken in 1917, William died of heatstroke.
Lance Corporal Charles Francis Stephens of Teignmouth was part of the relief force. Charles survived WW1 but was killed in WW2 when Teignmouth was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe.
