Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Albert Dollimore (779)

1895 –18/11/1918

Private, Army Service Corps, Reg. No. M2/188002

• Jenny Sherwood

Albert Dollimore
Private, Army Service Corps, Reg. No. M2/188002

Albert Dollimore was born in Berkhamsted in 1895, the son of timber hewer Charles (also known as Charley) and his wife Lucy née Brinklow. In 1911 the family lived at Chalgrove Villa, 24 Shrublands Avenue, Berkhamsted. The house was named after the place of birth of Charles and his oldest daughter Winifred. At that time, she was a teacher of the piano and 17-year-old Albert was employed as a houseboy, defined as “a young male domestic servant… esp. in some former British dependencies”.[1]

The Army Service Corps, nicknamed the Ally Sloper’s Cavalry, was the unsung hero of the British Army in the War. An Army cannot fight without food, equipment and ammunition. The vast supplies required was sent from Britain using horsed and motor vehicles, railways and waterways. Although not in the trenches, and rarely mentioned in war histories, the men and animals of the ASC were regularly under heavy shellfire as they made their way to and from the Front, and their bravery was second to none.

The prefix “M2” appearing before his Army Service Corps number (M2/188002) indicates that he was a member of the Mechanised Transport section of the Corps. By the time of Albert’s death in 1918, the Corps had attained its “Royal” prefix for its service in the war. Albert died just a few days after Armistice, on 18th November 1918 in Berkhamsted and he was buried in Rectory Lane cemetery. His sole legatee was his father Charles.

Taken from an article written by Linda Rollitt and contained in the Berkhamsted Local History and Museum Society publication “Men of Berkhamsted: Lest We Forget” – ISBN 978-1-9998555-1-2

[1] OED