Alfred Victor Mercer

A Private with 14 Light Armoured Motor Battery, Alfred died on 4th of June 1920 at the age of 20. 

Alfred was born at Lowestoft in 1898, a son of Alfred and Martha Mercer. In 1901 his family lived at 19 Princes Road, and this was still their address in 1911. 

Alfred enlisted in the Army around August 1915. He joined the Suffolk Regiment, service number 21191. About February 1916 he was posted to the France. At some point in 1916 he was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps, service number 3707, and was posted to 51 Company.   

On 11 October 1916 Alfred was admitted to 51 Field Ambulance to be treated for diarrhoea. The next day he joined a divisional rest camp.

By May 1917 Alfred was serving with 123 Company. On 3 May 1917 Alfred was admitted to 139 Field Ambulance with scabies. He was transferred, via 138 Ambulance Train, to 50 Casualty Clearing Station, arriving there on 4 May. He returned to duty on 11 May. 

On 26 December 1917 Alfred was admitted to 139 Field Ambulance, from 140 Field Ambulance, suffering from diarrhoea. On 30 December he was transferred to 39 Casualty Clearing Station. He was transferred to a sick convoy on 3 January 1918. By March 1918 Alfred had returned to serve with 123 Company. On 4 March he was travelling on Troop Train No 82 when it was partially derailed at Modane, near St. Michel. Two men were killed and eleven, including Alfred, were injured. 

In 1920 Alfred served with the 14th Light Armoured Motor Battery (LAMB) of the Machine Gun Corps. On 4 June 1920 an insurrection began at Tel Afar, thirty miles west of Mosul. Two Rolls-Royce armoured cars and four Ford vans from the 14th LAMB were sent to Tel Afar. The vehicles were surrounded in narrow streets and their crews killed. Alfred was among those killed at Tel Afar. Although Commonwealth War Graves records, and some other sources, state that Alfred, and his 14 LAMB colleagues died on 5 June 1920, there is no doubt that they were killed in the incident on 4 June.