Alfred Robert Duffield

Born: September 1885

Died: 4 November 1915

Rank and Regiment: Private G/15237, 11th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment.

Resting Place: Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, Pas de Calais (VIII. D. 163)

Memorial: Runhall War Memorial: Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, Pas de Calais.

Alfred was born in Hindringham, near Fakenham, in September 1885, the son of Robert Duffield and Charlotte (née Twiddy) of Kimberly. His family moved successively to Hardingham, where his brother Frederick was born in 1887, Coston, where his sister Florence was born in 1891 (and where they appear on the 1891 Census), and then to Runhall. They had certainly arrived in Runhall by 1892 when Alfred’s sister Clarissa was born.

On 16 March 1907 at Coston, Alfred had married Ada Amelia Land, and by the time of the 1911 Census he and Amelia had two surviving children, Lilian, born in Wicklewood before her parents’ marriage but given her father’s surname, and William Robert, born in Runhall on 20 February 1908. Were there, perhaps, issues within the family concerning Alfred’s marriage? The witness to his wedding from his side was his younger brother Charles (who was also to die in the Great War), but presumably Charles had acted as best man so one cannot read anything into that.

He enlisted at Wymondham initially in the 4th Norfolks, with the service number of 624 which implies that he was one of the very first to enlist. He was then transferred to the 11th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment, and it was while serving with that regiment in France that he was killed on 4 November 1915 aged 31.

He is buried in Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, Pas de Calais (VIII. D. 163) The records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission record him as “Son of Robert and Charlotte Duffield, of Kimberly (sic), Wymondham” – on which basis Alfred may perhaps be said to have a family connection with Kimberley.

Alfred’s effects, amounting to £6 7s 2d., together with a War Gratuity of £9, were duly paid to his widow Ada. Ada married again in 1918, marrying Christmas Wade, who was actually the older brother of Leonard Spinks (q.v.). She died in 1967