PEOPLE IN PORTSMOUTH

 

Lives Lived and Lives Lost - Portsmouth and the Great War

ALBERT E. SWEET
 
The head of the Sweet family was William (b. 1857) who was notable for the number of times he moved his wife and children around the country between 1891 and 1911. He and his wife Ellen had seven children and every one was born in a different location, mostly in the London area. They also had three addresses in Portsmouth during that period.
 
In 1891 William was a Police Constable in Islington, living with Ellen and their first three children, William, Albert and John. Ten years later he was a labourer in the Dockyard in Portsmouth, the family were living at 51 Southampton Row, Portsea and three more children, Ellen, Walter and Ivy had been born. The family later moved first to 11 Orange Street and then to 60 Union Street.
 
Albert Sweet has left no record of his early adult life, but we know that he was mobilised at the outbreak of the war when he was 26 years of age. He was assigned to the Royal Field Artillery and transported to France in one of the first waves. He fought in the retreat from Mons and at Ypres and the Somme. He died fighting at Ypres on July 24th 1916 and is buried at Quarry Cemetery, Montauban. His brother John Samuel Sweet had died in the Dardenelles a year earlier.
 
FURTHER INFORMATION
 
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission list Gunner A.E. Sweet (44422), 54th Battery, 39th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, died 24/07/1916. Buried at Quarry Cemetery, Montauban.
 
Albert Sweet is remembered on the St. George's Church WW1 memorial and the Cenotaph. He is listed in the 'National Roll of the Great War' Section X, p. 225.
 
Tim Backhouse
December 2013