BAILEY, ALFRED HARRY

BAILEY, ALFRED HARRY

Born 1918 Grimsby

Died 15/07/1945, age 26, County Infirmary, Louth

Buried 19/07/1945

T/112786, Driver, Royal Army Service Corp

Son of John Thomas Bailey (ship engine fitter, 1887-1954) and Johanna Marie Haagensen (1894-1957) of Cleethorpes, married 1913 in Cleethorpes

Brother of Ellen a.k.a. Helen (b 1915), John F. (b 1917), Roy (b 1925), Leonard (b 1925) and David Roy (b 1931). Roy lived for 6 hours, Leonard for 1 day and David for 2 weeks.

1939 – the family are living at 7 Tennyson Road, Cleethorpes. Helen married the previous year and her husband Fred Denniss is also living with them.

Address at time of death: 3 Hawthorne Avenue, Cleethorpes

Grave ref: Section BB, U10

Alfred’s gravestone says that he died “after fatal accident”. If this was the case, then he seems to have been very unlucky. Records show that he was a prisoner of war (number 258035) and was held in Stalag 4C, Wistritz bei Teplitz near Brux (now called Most) in Czechoslovakia. Many of the prisoners worked in the mine there, where fuel was synthesized from brown coal. The main camp was housed in a former porcelain factory and it was liberated by the Russian Army in May 1945. It would be a cruel twist of fate if Alfred survived Stalag 4C only to die in an accident back home, but the family does not appear to have been particularly blessed with good fortune, given the three infant boys who died when they had barely begun to live and Helen, who also died at a relatively young age in 1948.

The gravestone mentions his parents, brother Jack, sister Helen and little Shirley. Does anyone know who little Shirley was?