Albert George Guppy

Story:
Albert George Guppy was born at Chetnole, Sherborne, Dorset, on 30 Sep 1881 and baptised there on 20 Nov 1881 the son of John Guppy and Mercy Ann Guppy (nee Dewland).  He lived his early life in Leigh, Dorset, where he met and married Lily Brake on 6 Jun 1905.  They went on to have seven children.  He came to live in Melbury Abbas, Shaftesbury, Dorset, just prior to the outbreak of WW1.  He had enlisted on 22 Jun 1909 with the Territorial Unit and served with the 1/1st Battalion of the Dorset (Queen's Own) Yeomanry as a Private (Service No. 1179) later transferring to the Corps of Hussars (Service No. 230482).  He served in Egypt and Salonica for most of his service and on his discharge on 23 Mar 1919 was awarded the Victory and British War Medals as well as the 1915 Star.   The 1921 census shows him living in 7 Higher Blandford Road, Cann, Shaftesbury,  working as  Smallholder,   The 1939 Register shows him still living there but now described as a Thatcher.  He died at the Odstock Hospital, Salisbury, Wiltshire, on 13 Dec 1949 and was buried at The New Yard, Melbury Abbas,  on 17 Dec 1949. NB. His eldest son, Reginald Albert Guppy, born in 1906, served in WW2 in the Royal Navy and became a prisoner of the Japanese and he died in their custody on 8 Aug 1942.