CECIL
CHARLES ALGAR
Private
255032
Cecil Charles Algar was born in Newton Ferrers on 4 February 1892, and baptised in Holy Cross Church on 25 March 1892.� He was a son
of Charles and Laura Algar, who lived at Myrtle Cottage, Riverside Road West.� Charles was the master baker, and also ran a
small carting business which transported road-mending stone to work sites.� He was also the enumerator for Newton Ferrers
for the 1901 census.�� Charles and Laura had a total of 17
children, of whom four died in infancy.�
Charles� sister Emily married Ernest Veale Irish, who farmed at Post
Office Farm at Bridgend.� They had no
children, and thus many Algar children came to live at the farm.� One such was Laura, born in 1911.� She moved into Post Office Farm at the age of
11 months � and Laura Hingston has been there ever since.� In the 1901 Census Cecil is shown as living
at Post Office Farm.
He attended the local school from 4 February 1895 until 20 January 1905 (Roll No. 343).� After leaving school he helped with the carting
business until one day he saw an advertisement from a farmer in Okehampton needing
help with transporting a flock of sheep to Canada.� Cecil joined this expedition,
and then settled in Canada, buying land in Westerleigh, Saskatchewan.
Cecil Algar enlisted in the Canadian Over-Seas
Expeditionary Force on 27 March 1916 (see Attestation Paper
opposite), and joined the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles (Saskatchewan Regiment),
training as a sniper.� The regiment
formed part of 8th Brigade in 3rd Canadian Division.� During the Second Battle of Arras an action
took place from 26 to 30 August 1918 known as the Battle of the Scarpe.� Three Canadian divisions attacked German
defences at 3.00 am on 26 August, with 3rd Division in
the centre and its left flank on the River Scarpe.� Within five hours the division had captured
the village of Monchy and continued to advance
against well-entrenched opposition.� Over
the four days of the battle the Canadian soldiers had moved forward some eight
kilometres, in what was hailed as one of the finest advances of the Canadian
Army.� However, one of the casualties on
the first day was Private Cecil Algar, killed in action aged 26, and remembered
with honour at Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery, Haucourt (Plot VII.B.7).� Like his brother Wallace, he is also
remembered on the family memorial in Holy Cross churchyard.
�
