Albert Warlow – Sapper 19902 Royal Engineers
Died Wednesday 25th November 1914 AGE: 28
Albert was born in Haverfordwest. Army records give his home as Chepstow, the son of John & Mary Warlow of Chepstow. Fortunately the newspaper gives his address as Crick, which shows that he was one of five brothers and a sister brought up at Manor Farm (until recently about half of Crick was in Mathern parish but now the boundary is set by the motorway). The Warlows continued to manage the farm well into the 1930s and it was a noted local source of strong cider.
Albert enlisted at Merthyr Tydfil some years before the War, served his time in the Royal Engineers and was transferred to the Reserves. Upon mobilisation when the War began he was placed in the 56th Field Company of the Royal Engineers, first serving in France on 18th August 1914. Of the men from the Chepstow area he was the first casualty of the War, being posted missing on 21st August.
In the early weeks of the War the Germans were invading Belgium. To hinder their advance from Mons to Ypres 28 men including Albert were sent to blow up a bridge. Only a few returned. Albert was injured, taken prisoner and died three months later in a German military hospital near Brussels. He is buried in Cement House Cemetery, Langemark, just north of Ypres, grave ref 1.A.6. He is entitled to the Mons Star, War and Victory medals.
In the Chepstow Weekly Advertiser of December 26 1914 the Roll of Honour includes the following under “Missing”: Pte J Warlow (Crick) Royal Engineers. There is no record of a brother serving in the Royal Engineers, it just seems that the circumstances of Albert’s death were unclear, ill reported, also that his parents did not know of his death till the first week of January 1915
Extract from Weekly Argus issues of May and June 1915 which repeatedly gave the wrong date for Albert’s death – it must have been disheartening for parents to see their dead son’s name in the next column to adverts such as this each week! Also note E Davidge of Crick.