Alfred Charles Read; Private, Army Service Corps.

Cap badge of the Army Service Corps

Alfred was born in Melton on 2nd February 1885. In 1901, he was working as a horseman on a farm and in 1911, he married Catherine Fenn in Woodbridge. Both Catherine and Alfred worked for Lady Lushington, of The Hermitage, Melton, as parlour maid and chauffeur.

Alfred was conscripted into the army on 16th November 1916. He was posted initially to Grove Park where he passed a driving test but was found to be suffering from a heart condition, preventing him from serving overseas. He was eventually discharged from the Army Service Corps on 19th November 1918 as “no longer physically fit for war service” and received the Silver War Badge.

In 1939, Alfred was living with his family in Merton, Surrey. Alfred died there in 1940 at the age of fifty-four.