Alfred John Webb

Story:
Alfred John Webb was born on 12th March 1895 at East Orchard, Shaftesbury, Dorset, the son of George Webb (a Master at the National School, Hartgrove, Dorset) and Caroline Elizabeth Webb (née Chapman).  He lived most of his early life at East Orchard.  He had originally enlisted with the 5th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment (Service No. 1515) as a Territorial on 7th March 1913. He was mobilized for war on 5th August 1914 but discharged on 16th November 1914 being physically unfit for service.  He re-enlisted on 25th January 1915 and joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a Private (Service No. 11278).  He served in France but was again discharged on 11th June 1916 because he was no longer physically fit due to tuberculosis.  He was awarded the Silver War Badge No. 203307 and in due time the Victory and British War medals. He married Elizabeth A. Turrington in Cardiff, South Wales, in 1931 and they went on to have three children.  By the 1939 Register, Alfred was living at 17 Glasmor Road, Slough, Buckinghamshire, working as a Male Nurse in a Public Assistance Institution.  He died in the Herne Bay, Kent, area in 1964.

Alfred's brother Charles Frederic Ratcliffe (b.1890) also served in the war, with the Dorsetshire Regiment. His half brother Reginald Claude Eldon (b.1898) was sadly killed in 1916 while attached to the Wiltshire Regiment in France.