Albert Francis Chamberlain was born in Wellington Heath, Herefordshire in 1893. By 1911, his family had moved to Bowers Hill, Badsey, where his father, Francis Henry, was a domestic gardener. By this time his parents had had 13 children, two of whom had been baptised, in 1904 and 1906, whilst the family were living in Wickhamford. Albert married Mary Jane Faulkener at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Evesham in 1914 and he joined the Army Service Corps (No. T/4/070634) as a driver on 8th March 1915, giving his occupation as a carter. He was discharged after only 12 days on the grounds that he was unlikely to become an efficient soldier.
He later enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps on 26th September 1917 (No. 97371), when working as a gardener. He transferred to the Royal Air Force at its formation on 1st April 1918. Albert Chamberlain served in France from 31st October 1917 until 12th February 1919 and he was transferred to the R.A.F. Reserve on 14th March 1919. His rank had been an Aircraftman 1 and he was awarded the British War and Victory Medals.
Albert Chamberlain’s time in Wickhamford was limited to a few years before the Great War and in later life he lived mainly at Bowers Hill and Silk Mill Cottages, Badsey. In an obituary in the Evesham Standard in January 1944, it stated that on his discharge from the air force in 1919 he went to live in Wickhamford for a few years.
* * * * *
We are grateful to Darren Pardoe for sending us a copy of this photo which was in the possession of his late mother-in-law, Brenda Mary Jelfs (née Ingles), who was the niece of Albert Chamberlain.