ALBERT EDWARD STEVENS 1887-1917

Albert Edward Stevens was baptised at Ashcott Parish Church on 10 April 1887. His parents were Albert Edward and Sarah Stevens. Sarah’s maiden name was Franks and her family lived in Shapwick.
His sister Emily Annie was baptised a year earlier on 3 January 1886 having been born in Cardiff on 18 October 1885. Her father was described as a ‘dock labourer’. A year later the family were living in Ashcott.
By 1889 the family appears to have moved in different directions. Sarah appears to re-marry to a John Chapman Hawkins, but there is no obvious record of Albert Edward (senior’s) death. In the 1891 census John and Sarah are living at Stagmans Lane, Ashcott, with Emily and Albert recorded as step-children with a surname of ‘Franks’.
There are no entries in the Admissions to Ashcott School for Emily or Albert.
There are further investigations needed into the ‘Stevens’ families in Ashcott as it is difficult to separate the relationships. It is possible that there are family connections between Albert Edward and William John – another casualty of the War.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission details for Albert Edward are confusing and probably inaccurate. There is no evidence of Albert marrying a ‘Marianne M. Lockyer (formerly Stevens)’. There is, however, a marriage recorded in the Bridgwater Registration District between Albert Edward Stevens and Marianne M. Pitman in the December Quarter 1916. Marianne, usually recorded in the Census as Mary Ann, was born in 1891, the daughter of Thomas and Fanny Pitman of Moorlinch.

Albert Edward enlisted in the 6th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry and died on 22 August 1917. Albert had no known grave and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Zonnebeke, Belgium. The Somerset Light Infantry were part of the Commonwealth forces in the Third Battle of Ypres which lasted from July to November 1917. The battle culminated in the capture of Passchendaele but at enormous cost of life.

Albert was awarded the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.

Casualty Details

Name:	STEVENS, ALBERT EDWARD
Initials:	A E
Nationality:	United Kingdom
Rank:	Private
Regiment/Service:	Somerset Light Infantry
Unit Text:	6th Bn.
Age:	28
Date of Death:	22/08/1917
Service No:	26480
Additional information:	Husband of Marianne M. Lockyer (formerly Stevens), of Moorlynch, Bridgwater, Somerset.
Casualty Type:	Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference:	Panel 41 to 42 and 163A.
Memorial:	TYNE COT MEMORIAL

In Memory of
Private ALBERT EDWARD STEVENS

26480, 6th Bn., Somerset Light Infantry
who died aged 28
on 22 August 1917

Husband of Marianne M. Lockyer (formerlyStevens),

 of Moorlynch, Bridgwater, Somerset.

Remembered with honour

TYNE COT MEMORIAL

Cemetery Details

Cemetery:	TYNE COT MEMORIAL
Country:	Belgium
Locality:	Zonnebeke, West-Vlaanderen
Location Information:	The Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which is located 9 kilometres north east of Ieper town centre, on the Tynecotstraat, a road leading from the Zonnebeekseweg (N332). The names of those from United Kingdom units are inscribed on Panels arranged by Regiment under their respective Ranks. The names of those from New Zealand units are inscribed on panels within the New Zealand Memorial Apse located at the centre of the Memorial.
Historical Information:	The Tyne Cot Memorial is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. Broadly speaking, the Salient stretched from Langemarck in the north to the northern edge in Ploegsteert Wood in the south, but it varied in area and shape throughout the war. The Salient was formed during the First Battle of Ypres in October and November 1914, when a small British Expeditionary Force succeeded in securing the town before the onset of winter, pushing the German forces back to the Passchendaele Ridge. The Second Battle of Ypres began in April 1915 when the Germans released poison gas into the Allied lines north of Ypres. This was the first time gas had been used by either side and the violence of the attack forced an Allied withdrawal and a shortening of the line of defence. There was little more significant activity on this front until 1917, when in the Third Battle of Ypres an offensive was mounted by Commonwealth forces to divert German attention from a weakened French front further south. The initial attempt in June to dislodge the Germans from the Messines Ridge was a complete success, but the main assault north-eastward, which began at the end of July, quickly became a dogged struggle against determined opposition and the rapidly deteriorating weather. The campaign finally came to a close in November with the capture of Passchendaele. The German offensive of March 1918 met with some initial success, but was eventually checked and repulsed in a combined effort by the Allies in September. The battles of the Ypres Salient claimed many lives on both sides and it quickly became clear that the commemoration of members of the Commonwealth forces with no known grave would have to be divided between several different sites. The site of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men who passed through it on their way to the battlefields. It commemorates those of all Commonwealth nations, except New Zealand, who died in the Salient, in the case of United Kingdom casualties before 16 August 1917 (with some exceptions). Those United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after that date are named on the memorial at Tyne Cot, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war. Other New Zealand casualties are commemorated on memorials at Buttes New British Cemetery and Messines Ridge British Cemetery. The TYNE COT MEMORIAL now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage and F.V. Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett on 20 June 1927. The memorial forms the north-eastern boundary of TYNE COT CEMETERY, which was established around a captured German blockhouse or pill-box used as an advanced dressing station. The original battlefield cemetery of 343 graves was greatly enlarged after the Armistice when remains were brought in from the battlefields of Passchendaele and Langemarck, and from a few small burial grounds. It is now the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world in terms of burials. At the suggestion of King George V, who visited the cemetery in 1922, the Cross of Sacrifice was placed on the original large pill-box. There are three other pill-boxes in the cemetery. There are now 11,956 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in Tyne Cot Cemetery, 8,369 of these are unidentified. The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.
No. of Identified Casualties:	34935

This figure includes Foreign and Non-World War graves in CWGC care

Attachments – Commonwealth War Graves Commission Casualty Details
– Commonwealth War Graves Commission Certificate
– Tyne Cot Memorial details
References – Ashcott Parish Church Baptisms
– 1891-1911 Census
– BMD Marriages December Quarter 1916 Bridgwater 5c 626
– World War 1 Medal Cards