Dawlish World War One Project

Of Albert's military record there is little to tell us when he enlisted. The Medal Roll shows that he was entitled to the Victory Medal and the British War Medal, and the Register of Soldiers' Effects shows that the Death Grant and War Gratuity were paid to his widow Alice E Mayne. The CWGC reference shows that Alice had moved to Stevenage. She is elsewhere shown to have died in Letchworth on 28 August 1967.
It seems likely that Albert responded to Kitchener's call for volunteers and would have trained on Salisbury Plain. He had joined the Coldstream Guards, 1st Battalion.
We know that Albert died on the 9 August from wounds sustained ahead of the start of the Thirda Battle of Ypres, and that he died in hospital in Le Treport, France (see document for fuller description).

Born Dawlish, 16 June 1896.  Died France, 9 August 1917, aged 21

Private 18321 Coldstream Guards, 1st Battalion

Albert Mayne was the grandson of James Mayne (1822-1891) and Sarah Brook (1818-1895). They had married in the July-Sept quarter of 1847 in Newton Abbot district (vol 10, p 202).

James was a farm labourer, born in Dawlish, and Sarah was a laundress, born in Honiton/Kenton (Census records differ) and they lived in 3 Church Cottages, Dawlish. Their children were George (1845- ), John (1848- ), Mary Ann (1851- ), James (1853- ), and Henry (1856-1919) all born in Dawlish.

Henry Mayne married Sarah Ann Cox (1855-1916) in April-June quarter of 1875 (N.A. vol 5b, p 280). They had nine children between 1876 and 1896, who were Jessie (1876- ), Henry Charles (1878- ), William J (1879- ), Emily J (1883- ), Ernest J (1885- ), Alice Mary (1888- ) Alfred Samuel (1890-1906), Frederick T (1893- ) and Albert.

Henry was also an agricultural labourer and his wife a laundress.

By 1911 Henry and Sarah Ann were living at 11 Old Town Street with two children, Fred, 18, a labourer for the railway company, and Albert, 14, an errand boy for a draper. The Census record also shows that eight of the nine children survived to that date, Alfred Samuel having died in 1906 at age 16.
Albert married Alice Edith Hills in the July-Sept quarter of 1915 (N.A. vol 5b, p 381) when he was 19 and they had one child, Derrick Mayne who was born on 15 July 1916 (N.A. vol 5b, p 127). Derrick died on 25 August 1996 in Hertfordshire (Hitchin & Stevenage 1c, District 5341C, entry 269).