Blackmore Area Local History

Alfred John Wheal

War Memorial: Place and inscription
Blackmore War Memorial: Dr A.J. Wheal.
Church window: Alfred Wheal.
Ongar & District War Memorial Hospital Roll of Honour (Blackmore) entered as A Wheal [ERO A10815].

Rank:
Private

Regiment:
Northumberland Fusiliers. 22nd (Tyneside Scottish) Battalion. Service No. 47250 [CWGC]
Formerly no 174351, Royal Engineers [SDGW]

Service Details:
Enlisted: Ongar [WFA]
Medal card: Victory/British D/1/105 B42 p. 9957.    K in A [Ancestry.com]

Personal and family information:
Alfred John Wheal birth registered Ongar Q3 1885. [Free BMD]
Blackmore’s Baptism Register records an Alfred John Wheal baptised on 13^th December 1885 (with the Vicar adding “born 19/8/85”).  His parents were Charles, a labourer, and Sarah, of Swallows Cross, Blackmore [ERO D/P 266/1/11].
The name appears in the ‘Sunday School Admission Register’ as Alfred John Wheal with “age” recorded as “18/8/86”.  [ERO D/P 266/28]

1901 Census: Blackmore. Alfred Wheal b. ca 1886, with parents Charles b. 1837 and Sarah b. 1852.
In the 1911 Census (then aged 24) Alfred Wheal is living as a boarder at Collins Farm, Hutton at the home of George & Elizabeth Philpott. The Head of the Household was a “horsemen on farm”.  Alfred Wheal’s employment is described as “Carman for roads contractors”.

His siblings are recorded on Blackmore’s War Memorial is survivors:
Arthur Charles Wheal, born Doddinghurst, 1881, served as a Stoker in the Royal Navy.
Albert Edward Wheal, born Blackmore, 1887, was a Private in the Machine Gun Corps.

Date of Death:
5^th June 1917

Age:
31

Where died:
Killed in France in “No Man’s Land”.[CWGC / WFA]

Place of Burial or Commemoration:
Commemorated: Arras Memorial, France. Bay 2 & 3. [CWGC]

List of Sources:
Ancestry.com, Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), Essex Record Office, Find My Past.com / Soldiers who Died in the Great War, Dave Wheal a descendent, Western Front Association