Albert John Welcome

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Grave/Memorial:  		Welcome, Albert John

9 January 1889, Chichester, Sussex

William and Esther (née Arnell)

32nd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers

22713 / GS.49703

Private

9 June 1917, Belgium,

Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Poperinge, Arrondissement Ieper, West Flanders,
Belgium: XV. I. 13 		      

Biography:
Albert John Welcome was born in Chichester, Sussex, on 9 January 1889.  He was the son and second child of William, a leather worker, and Esther (née
Arnell).  He had two brothers and three sisters.

After leaving school, Albert worked as a gardener.

Albert married Eleanor Butcher in 1914 and they lived in Royal Oak Road, Woking, with his in-laws.

Albert joined up in May 1916.  He arrived in France on 29 September 1916, with 32nd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers.

Albert John Welcome died of wounds, at a casualty clearing station, on 9 June 1917.  He is buried,
in grave XV. I. 13, within the Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Poperinge, Arrondissement Ieper,
Belgium.

Albert is also recorded on the headstone of his brother-in-law, Ernest Butcher, who died from
wounds on 7th May 1915 and is buried in St John’s Cemetery.

    



During the First World War, the village of Lijssenthoek was situated on the main communication
line between the Allied military bases in the rear and the Ypres battlefields.  Close to the Front,
but out of the extreme range of most German field artillery, it became a natural place to establish
casualty clearing stations.

The cemetery was first used by the French 15th Hopital D'Evacuation and in June 1915, it began
to be used by casualty clearing stations of the Commonwealth forces.

The cemetery, designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield, contains 9,901 Commonwealth burials
of the First World War, 24 being unidentified.  There are 883 war graves of other nationalities,
mostly French and German; 11 of these are unidentified.  The cemetery is the second largest
Commonwealth cemetery in Belgium.		     

Frederick Webb is also commemorated on the WWI memorial stone outside the Brookwood Memorial Hall.