Alfred James Barrett

A Private with the 9th Battalion, Alfred died on 13th of September 1916 at the age of 28.

Alfred was born at Garboldisham, Norfolk, in 1888, a son of Alfred and Christina Barrett. He was baptised at Garboldisham on 4 November 1888. In 1891 his family lived at The Street, Garboldisham. By 1901 they were living at the Sand Pit, Haddiscoe, and in 1911 they lived at 5 Station Cottages, Herringfleet, and Alfred was a farm labourer. 

Alfred volunteered and enlisted in the Army at Lowestoft. He joined the Suffolk Regiment, service number 17803. He was posted to the 9th Battalion and arrived in France with the Battalion on 31 August 1915. 

Colonel Murphy’s ‘The History of the Suffolk Regiment 1914-1927’ has the following account of the 9th Battalion’s attack at The Quadrilateral 13 September 1916:

The battalion took part in an attack by the 61st Division on the Quadrilateral., the 71st Brigade being on the left and the 16th on the right. The 9th Battalion attacked with three companies in the front line and one in support, zero being 6.20 a.m. The battalion got through the German out post line quite easily, but on gaining the open ground, which stretched for about four hundred yards to the enemy’s wire, came under a terrific machine-gun fire from the formidable strong point known as the Quadrilateral. Across this bare expanse the men struggled bravely forward. Lieutenant Macdonald with others getting close enough to throw a bomb into the German stronghold before being wounded. No further progress could, however, be made. At 7.30 a.m. another attack, in which A Company participated, was launched; and in the evening a third. Still no entrance could be effected. The battalion therefore, in touch with the units on both flanks, dug itself in on a line about half a mile in front of the jumping off trenches of the morning.  

The Battalion’s casualties were: officers 2 killed and 10 wounded; other ranks 15 killed and 185 wounded. 

Alfred was reported missing and later it was concluded that he had died on, or since, 13-16 September.