No. 76063, Gunner, Albert Edward C.H. BALLS
Aged 28
78th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery
Died of Illness on Saturday 26th October 1918
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Born in Kirtling in Q1-1890 [Newmarket 3b:515] to Elizabeth Mary BALLS who married Henry COLE in 1896 and by 1916 was living at 2 Outfall
Works, Newmarket. 1891 census...At Upend Green Cottages were Albert ECH BALLS [1] his grandparents, James BALLS [42] labourer, born Lidgate, and Johanna [40] born Kirtling and his mother Elizabeth [21]; uncles James [17]; William [14];Joseph [12] and Peter [7]. All the children were born in Kirtling. 1901 census...Albert was still with his grandparents at Upend Green Cottages with uncles Joseph [22]; Peter [17]; and George [8], born Kirtling. Mother Elizabeth married Henry COLE in Newmarket in 1896. She was living at Kremlin Cottage, Fordham Road, Newmarket,with husband Henry COLE [43], a studworker, born Exning, daughter Dorothy [4], born Upend, and son Henry James [2], born Exning. Exning in this instance was the Newmarket parish of Exning. 1911 census...Albert [21], farm labourer, was living with his aunt, Fanny Thorogood [80], a widow, living at Near Street, Lidgate. Albert married Emma Rose OSBORN [24-7-1893] in the parish church at Cheveley on 25th July,1914, they lived at Upend Street, Kirtling. They had a son, Alfred Edward James [29-9-1914] and daughter, Cecilia Rosemary Mary [1-8-1916]. Emma later moved to 2 Fern Cottages, Exning Road. Newmarket. Henry James COLE who was killed in Belgium in 1918, it appears, was the half brother of Albert. His entry in "Our Exning Heroes" reads: Balls, A.E....R.G.A. Albert Edward Balls joined the Royal Garrison Artillery on April 11th, 1916. On June 26th in the same year he went to France. He came home on leave on October 12th and seems to have contracted a serious illness on the journey home. After a few days spent with his friends in Exning, during which time he was getting rapidly worse, he was sent to the 1st Eastern Hospital, Cambridge, where he died on October 26th at the age of 28. He was buried in Exning Cemetery. He married at Cheveley Church, Emma Rose Osborn on July 26th, 1914, and leav The pension card records his death was due to influenza and bronchial pneumomia. |
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He was attested on 7th December 1915 in Newmarket, he was a robust man of 5' 8 1/2" (174 cm) weighing 128 lbs (58.12 kg), giving his age as 25 years 9 months. He was mobilised on
12th April 1916. Posted to France on 21st June that year and posted to 78th Siege Battery on 23rd June. From 1th to 18th August he was in hospital in France
with 'colic'. He was granted leave from 14th to 30th October 1918 to UK via Boulogne and was admitted to 1st Eastern General Hospital, Cambridge, on 21st
October, where he died of influenza/pneumonia on 26th October. Newmarket Journal of 16 November 1918 gives the date of his death as 20th October 1918. Emma was awarded 25s 5d (£1.27) a week pension. Like so many, he was a pipe smoker as seen on the list of personal effects returned to his widow: Military hairbrush in leather case, 2 handkerchiefs, 2 pipes, pocket knife, aluminium match box cover 'Somme 1916-1917' razor strop, mirror in folding cloth case, pipe lighter, 2 discs with charm, leather tobacco pouch, travellers haversack, cardigan, shirt, pair braces and a comb. The rest is too faint to read, but it is more than many had returned to their next of kin. Albert was one of millions throughout Europe to die of the influenza pandemic in 1918-19. Thought to have arrived in Europe in Spring 1918 with American troops it was at first just the "3 day fever", but it quickly turned into a killer and definitely killed more people world wide than those killed in the fighting during the entire war. Estimates put the deaths at around 40 million. |
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