London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Brompton Cemetery (Alfred John Weston)

This grave at Brompton Cemetery commemorates the life of Alfred John Weston. He was born in 1896 and he joined the Royal Fusiliers and was a private in the First Battalion. Alfred died on 2 February 1915 at the age of 19, being buried on 6 February 1915. His address was given as St Mark’s College Hospital, Chelsea, which was being used as the Second London General Hospital.

There’s no next of kin mentioned on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission web-site, but if I’ve got the right person, at the 1911 census Alfred lived at 53, The Broadway, Ealing, along with his parents Edward Bradley and Elizabeth Bradley, although I’m unsure why the surname differs. His father, a naval pensioner, was thirteen years older than his mother, so I can only assume he remarried.

And there another story ends, the usual places don’t mention what happen to him and his service records aren’t available. Unfortunately, 60% of these service records from the First World War were lost during air raids in the Second World War, so I assume that’s what has happened here. Alfred has also been given a new gravestone recently, although I don’t know the back story to that.

Hopefully one day I’ll find out more about Alfred, it’s sad that a 19-year old died from his injuries likely incurred on a foreign battlefield and there’s little known about him. At least his body was buried in a local cemetery though, something which many families didn’t get.