LEATHERHEAD WAR MEMORIALS - WWI
Driver Albert James Fairs
880 MT Coy, Army Service Corps
Town Memorial P3.R2.C3
Driver M.T.
Albert J.
Fairs
R.A.S.C. [sic]*
Veles, Serbia [sic]
Oct 20 1918
Taken, Not Given, Liam Sumption, L&DLHS
Albert James Fairs M284145, born Leatherhead, enlisted Leatherhead ¹.
The first post-war issue of the Leatherhead Parish magazine ² tells us a little about the death of Albert Fairs, and his family.
He evidently died in Salonika, and not Veles, Serbia as the Town War Memorial suggests. The cause of death was pneumonia.
The magazine extended sympathy to Mrs Fairs of River Cottages, Kingston Road.
Sources
1. Soldiers who died in the Great War (RASC), IWM
2. Parish Magazine of St Mary & St Nicholas, December 1918
Further research
PRIVATE
ALBERT JAMES FAIRS
Service Number: M/284145
Regiment & Unit/Ship: Army Service Corps 880th M.T. Coy.
Date of Death: Died 20 October 1918
Buried or commemorated at: SKOPJE
BRITISH CEMETERY
Grave: F. 9.
Republic of North Macedonia
*The ASC did not become the Royal Army
Service Corps until 25 Nov 1918. However, for once the Leatherhead
Memorial inscription may be the more informative - Driver rather than
Private, for indeed M.T. Coy stood for Mechanical Transport
Company. 880
Coy A.S.C. was a Supply Column unit working with the
Serbian Army (WO95/4814 Dec 1916-March 1919).
The present Royal Logistic Corps' Archives
do not appear to hold any War Diaries for ASC Units in WW1. It should
be remembered that the Army Records Office in Arnside Street, Walworth
London was bombed by His Majesty’s Enemies on the night of 7/8th
September 1940 and the majority of the records were destroyed by
either fire or water.
The British Army's role in the Macedonian
Theatre was one of eventual success with various allies, complicated
by the politics of the area and the ravages of disease and illness -
see Salonika
Campaign Society.
Leatherhead
Parish Magazine, December 1918 shows that pneumonia was also
taking lives at home. The influenza epidemic was raging around the
world:
The following
have given their lives for the Cause :—
.....
Pte. Albert James Fairs, A.S.C., M.T., died of pneumonia at Salonica,
Oct. 20, 1918.
In the long list of burials at the Parish Church last month will be
found the names of George Alexander and Ernest Wright. Both had been
wounded in the war, and returned, after their discharge, to live at
home. But their health had been shattered, and proved unable to resist
the attack of pneumonia following influenza; and their lives were no
less certainly sacrificed to the service of their Country than if they
had fallen in action.
Mrs. Fairs, of Rivers Cottages, Kingston Road, desires to thank
her friends for the sympathy shewn on the death of her son on active
service at Salonica.
Dorking and Leatherhead
Advertiser
Saturday 28 December
1918 ROLL OF HONOUR.
THE YEAR’S RECORD OF THE BRAVE FALLEN.
NOVEMBER
FAIRS, PTE., ALBERT JAMES, A.S.C., son of Mrs. Fairs, Kingston-road,
Leatherhead.
The Cemetery
Skopje was captured by the Bulgarians in October 1915 and re-entered by
French cavalry at the end of September 1918. Skopje British Cemetery was
created after the Armistice when burials were gathered together from
Kumanovo British Cemetery, Prilep French Military Cemetery, Veles
British and French Military Cemeteries and other burial grounds. The
great majority of those who died were men of the RASC (MT), who died of
influenza after the Armistice with Bulgaria.
There are now 124 Commonwealth servicemen buried or commemorated in this
cemetery. Six of the burials are unidentified and special memorials
commemorate six servicemen buried in Uskub German Cemetery whose graves
could not be found.
His life
Albert Fairs was born on 7 September 1891 in Leatherhead and baptised on 1 November 1891 at All Saints', Leatherhead. In the 1911 Census his occupation was Butcher Assistant. He was 27 when he died.
His father was Henry Fairs (Jan 1855-Jan 1915) from
Leatherhead, a Gas Stoker. He died before Albert.
His mother was Emma Kezia Simmonds, born about 1868, from East Horsley, Surrey. She was baptised simply as Emma at St Martin's, East Horsley on July 1 1871. The entry in the Register by the Rector is curious: "Parents Name: Emma Simmonds ... Widow (Janry 1869)". His mother died in 1919, the year after Albert.
His siblings were Harry Tanner b 1889, William Arthur b 1900, Winifred Phyllis May b 1907, and two adopted - Dorothy Tickell (age 14 in 1911) and William Lipscombe (age 4 in 1911).
In the 1901 Census the family were at 2 Rivers Cottages,
Kingston Road, Leatherhead, Surrey.
In the 1911 Census they were at 10 Kingston Road Cottages, Kingston
Road, Leatherhead, Surrey.
Albert is listed among the War casualties on the Church Lads Brigade tryptich at All Saints, Leatherhead.
His WW1 Pension record refers to Emma Fairs and Mrs Amelia Wilsden, '(Guardian of orphan sister)'
Albert Fairs is remembered on these memorials
Leatherhead Town Memorial
Leatherhead RBL Roll of
Honour, Leatherhead Parish Church
Ladies War Shrine, Leatherhead
Parish Church
Church Lads Brigade Memorial
Tryptich, All Saints Leatherhead
Surrey
in the Great War
Links
the website editor would like to add
further information on this casualty
e.g. a photo of him, of his grave and of any recollections within
his family
last updated 25 Jul 2004 CWGC link updated 7 Nov 17:
content 22 Jul 20