Albert George Hartfield was born On This Day 7 August 1896 in Streatham. The family lived at 103 Leverson Street and Albert attended St Andrew's School
He worked as a bookseller’s assistant. He enlisted on 11 May 1915 and went to France on 6 March 1916 with the 17th Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps, service number 3185, and reached the rank of corporal.
He was wounded in the right arm by a gunshot on 8 September 1916 and on 10 June 1917 suffered severe shell shock. This was the result of being buried when his machine gun post was hit by enemy shells and he was never able to fight at the front again. He was transferred to the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) on 20 March 1918 and was finally demobilised on 21 July 1919.
He went on to marry Ruth Vine in 1919 and had seven children. So Albert was the ‘lucky’ one
(Family story contributed by Brian Roote on Surrey in the Great War: Image Albert Frederick and Charles)