WALLACE ALGAR

Private 36132

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wallace Algar was born in Newton Ferrers on 20 December 1893, and baptised in Holy Cross Church on 30 March 1894.  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[1].   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.

 

 

 

 

 

             MYRTLE

            COTTAGE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wallace Algar attended Newton Ferrers School from 11 January 1897 to 21 December 1906 (Roll No. 384).  He worked locally as a labourer until the start of the war, when he enlisted into a battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, with the Official Number 16698.  He later transferred to the 11th (Service) Battalion (Midland Pioneers) of the Leicestershire Regiment.  This battalion crossed to France on 1 April 1916 and was attached to 6th Division.  The Division was engaged at the Battle of the Somme and continued afterwards to fight on the Western Front.  Wallace Algar was killed in action on 29 June 1917 aged 23 – his employment in a pioneer battalion, usually tasked in small groups of soldiers anywhere in the divisional area, makes it difficult to identify the circumstances of his death.

 

Laura remembers Wallace coming to Post Office Farm to bid farewell at the end of his final leave, and she heard him tell Aunt Emily that he did not expect to return.  He also had a favourite spaniel, and Laura remembers the dog howling inconsolably at The Brook on the day that Wallace was killed.

 

Wallace Algar is remembered with honour at Mazingarbe Communal Cemetery Extension (Plot II.C.8), and also on the family grave in Holy Cross churchyard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The stone on the left of the memorial commemorates Wallace’s brother Cecil Charles, who was also killed in action  (see later entry)


[1] Now available for free on the Internet in Plymouth City Library – the pages are in his handwriting.