Alfred Graystone was born in Strood around 1894, and was the youngest son of the Graystone-Dale family.\u00a0 Whilst his mother’s family were from the Medway towns, his father’s family were from Suffolk.<\/p>\n
In 1871, his father, Alfred was living at home with his parents in Nacton, in Suffolk, working as a ship\u2019s carpenter.\u00a0 Nacton was then a village on the River Orwell, near the town of Ipswich, which then had an important dock.\u00a0 Alfred\u2019s older brother, William, was also working as a ship\u2019s carpenter, although their father, James, was an agricultural labourer.\u00a0 \u00a0Charles, a brother in between William and Alfred Senior, also went on to work as a ship wright or carpenter.\u00a0 Alfred Senior\u2019s older sister, Emma Smith, was visiting from Gillingham, where she now lived with her husband, Elias Frederick Smith, and daughter, Maria, then aged 3 months.\u00a0 Elias Smith was from Harwich, a port town located where the Rivers Orwell and Stour meet, and was also a shipwright.\u00a0 Shipwrightery was clearly an occupation available to young men growing up in the Ipswich\/Harwich\/Felixstowe area in the middle of the nineteenth century, and it also appears to have given this generation of Graystones a chance to move elsewhere. Between 1871 and 1881, Alfred Senior moved to the Medway towns, following his sister and her husband. \u00a0We can roughly date this as around 1876, from the birth dates and places of his children in the 1881 Census.<\/p>\n
Alfred Senior\u2019s first wife, Ann Lambert, was also born in the same part of Suffolk, in Great Blakenham.\u00a0 The oldest of their children, Alfred Edward, 9 at the time of the 1881 census, was born in Suffolk, but his younger sister Esther, then 7, had been born in Hull.\u00a0 Arthur, then 4, had been born in Gillingham, as had William George (then 2) and Florence (then 7 months).\u00a0 At this point, the family lived at 9 Britton Street in Gillingham.<\/p>\n
In 1881, Alfred Junior\u2019s mother, Mary A. Dale, was widowed and working as a dressmaker.\u00a0 She lived with her young children \u2013 Clara, 10, Lily, 5, Augusta, 2, and William Henry, then 8 months.\u00a0 Mary was born in Old Brompton, whilst the children were all born in New Brompton (or Gillingham as it now known).\u00a0 Mary had married Robert Dale on 28 November 1869, but was remarried to Alfred Greystone Senior around 1887.<\/p>\n
This meant that Alfred Junior had two sets of older half-brothers and half-sisters, with his maternal half-siblings keeping the name of Dale.\u00a0 In 1891, a couple of years before Alfred\u2019s birth, the Graystone-Dale family were living at 98 Temple Street in Strood.\u00a0 Alfred\u2019s oldest child still living at home then was Arthur, who was 14 and working as a shop boy for an ironmonger, whilst William George, 12, and Florence Rhoda, 10, were both at school.\u00a0 Mary Ann\u2019s children, Augusta (12), William Henry (10) and Agnes Lucy (8), were also at school.\u00a0 Walter Alfred Graystone was the first child born to both Mary Ann and Alfred, and was a toddler of about 2 years old at this point.<\/p>\n
In 1901, Alfred Junior was 7 years old and lived with his parents, siblings and step-siblings at 21 Cazeneuve Street in Rochester.\u00a0 Alfred Senior was still employed as a shipwright in a private yard.\u00a0 He may well have been working in connection with the merchant shipping industry in the Rochester area, rather than working for the Chatham Dockyard.\u00a0 It is possible that he had worked at the Dockyard earlier in his working life – indeed, it may have been what brought him to the Medway towns from Suffolk.\u00a0 Walter Alfred was then 12 and Alfred Junior\u2019s next older sister, Emily, was 8.<\/p>\n
Alfred Junior joined the Royal Field Artillery in his late teens \u2013 at the time of the 1911 Census, he was quartered at their barracks in Woolwich, serving in the 43rd<\/sup> Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery<\/a>, a Howziter brigade.\u00a0 Alfred was a bombardier, regimental no: 64115, serving during the war in the 17th<\/sup> Battery of the 41st<\/sup> Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery<\/a>.\u00a0 His page on Every Man Remembered<\/a> includes a photograph of him taken by a photographer based on Powis Street in Woolwich, which was close to where the Royal Field Artillery were based.<\/p>\n Alfred Junior went to France with the Royal Field Artillery, and he was awarded the Victory, British and Star Medals \u2013 popularly known as Pip, Squeak and Wilfred.\u00a0 Alfred fought in the Battle of the Somme, during which he was injured.\u00a0 He died from his wounds on 1 August 1916, and was buried in the Corbie Communal Cemetery in France.\u00a0 At the time of his death, his parents Alfred and Mary Ann, lived at 78 Princes Street, Rochester.<\/p>\n William Henry Dale, his older brother, also enlisted in the First World War in 1915, aged 35.\u00a0 In 1911, when Alfred Junior was serving with the RFA, William was living at home with his parents, and working as a general labourer.\u00a0 The family had by this point moved to 8 Bank Terrace, Thomas Street in the Delce area of Rochester. \u00a0On enlistment, his next of kin was given as his mother, Mary Ann Graystone, with her address as 9 Star Hill, Rochester.\u00a0 \u00a0William joined the Queen\u2019s Own (Royal West Kent) Regiment, with his regimental number of 4190.\u00a0 William survived the war, dying in Chatham in 1955.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sources (all Ancestry.com)<\/strong><\/p>\n British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920.<\/em><\/p>\n Census Returns of England and Wales, 1891<\/em>; Class:\u00a0RG12<\/em>; Piece:\u00a0653<\/em>; Folio:\u00a0136<\/em>; Page:\u00a043<\/em>;<\/p>\n 1901 England Census, Class:\u00a0RG13<\/em>; Piece:\u00a0724<\/em>; Folio:\u00a076<\/em>; Page:\u00a03<\/em><\/p>\n Commonwealth War Graves, 1914-1921 and 1939-1947<\/em><\/p>\n William Henry Dale:<\/strong><\/p>\n British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920<\/em>.<\/p>\n 1911 England Census, Class:\u00a0RG14<\/em>; Piece:\u00a03895<\/em>; Schedule Number:\u00a0273<\/em><\/p>\n England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007<\/em><\/p>\n Alfred Graystone Senior and Mary Ann Dale:<\/strong><\/p>\n England and Wales Marriages, 1538-1988. Gillingham, Kent, England<\/em>; Date Range:\u00a01866 – 1882<\/em>; Film Number:\u00a01042495<\/em><\/p>\n England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915<\/em><\/p>\n Emma Smith:<\/strong><\/p>\n England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915<\/em><\/p>\n 1881 England Census, Class:\u00a0RG11<\/em>; Piece:\u00a0891<\/em>; Folio:\u00a099<\/em>; Page:\u00a013<\/em>; GSU roll:\u00a01341212<\/em><\/p>\n