More about Albert Edward Fyfe

For reasons unknown Albert is not listed on the original Dundee Roll of Honour.

Albert Fyffe   8831   Seaforth Highlanders

PERTH MAN KILLED.

Private Albert Fyffe, of the 2nd Battalion Seaforths, whose wife lives in Leonard Street Perth, has been killed in action.  Private Fyffe was thirty years of age, and was a reservist, having been employed by the Caledonian Railway Company, Perth.  Some time ago the deceased was “gassed,” but was able to return to the trenches a fortnight later.  Private Fyffe’s death was caused by a high explosive shell, which killed three men and wounded two.  He leaves a widow and four children.

Dundee Evening Telegraph 29th June 1915

Private Albert Edward Fyfe  Army No. 8831,   2^nd Bn Seaforth Highlanders (1885 – 19 Jun 1915)

Born in Dundee in 1885, the second son of George and Penelope (nee Rae) Fyfe, Albert Edward Fyfe, was a 29 year old Railway Porter and Shunter working at Perth Railway Station when the First World War broke out on 3rd August 1914. At that time Albert had been a Reservist in the Seaforth Highlanders for seven years and was immediately mobilised on 14th August. He lived at 43 Leonard Street (opposite), adjacent to Perth Railway Station.  He was married to Mary Anne Sinclair (then only 26 years old – born on 3 September 1887 and 2 years younger than her husband). Together they had four young Children: Kathy (Born 1911), Bella (1912), George (1913) and Mary was pregnant expecting another son, Albert, who was born on 24th of  February 1915 while his father was away fighting in the trenches in Flanders. Albert was killed on 19 June 1915. It is not known if he came home on leave or ever got to hold his new son. His father George died 6 years later in June 1921, (73 yrs old). His mother, ‘Penny’ died in November 1939 (83 yrs old) at the start of World War Two.

Albert enlisted into the Regular Army at the Age of 19 in July 1904, serving as an Infantry Private in the Seaforth Highlanders (Army Regimental Number 8831) 2nd Battalion based in Aldershot, for three years before transferring into the Reserves and returning to Perth to work on the Railway. The enlistment contract sets out 3 years full time service, followed by nine years Reserve commitment, allowing for an additional 12 months in the event of war or a state of emergency on their 12 year release date. It also (para.19 left) specifically mentions a liability for potential mounted duties in the Mounted Infantry. From the family album, a photograph of Albert (with Lee-Enfield .303 Rifle) and his section in 1907 shows them sporting the most unusual garb with the 1903 Pattern Cavalry Ammunition Bandoliers, riding crops riding boots/shoes rather than the usual infantry hobnail boot and slouch hats normally associated with Australian troops. Their ‘Seaforth’ shoulder titles and the Seaforth tartan confirms them to be members of the Seaforth Highlanders but this garb is from Boer War Yeomanry influence and indicates that he was a member of the Battalion’s Mounted Infantry Detachment.

Albert’s Army record shows that he was awarded three medals:  The Mons Star (1914) with the 1914 bar; The British War Medal and the Empire Victory Medal. Alberts War and Victory medals were returned undelivered in 1921: 100 years later the Medals Office are kindly sending replacements to his surviving official next of kin- one of his Granddaughters. Eventually after the official confirmation of Albert’s Death in December 1915, Along with his pension, Mary Anne received a 11cm Commemorative plaque (known as the ‘Dead-Mans Penny’) and ‘Honour Scroll’ from the War Department (left). Today we are still missing both his 1914 ‘Mons’ Star and the 5 inch Remembrance plaque. These may have been lost or sold at some time. Sadly and ironically, the calligrapher wrote in the wrong forename (Arthur instead of Albert . This bureaucratic slip-up was no doubt only induced by the sheer numbers of  war dead then having to be processed by the War Office.

Back in No.43 Leonard Street, Perth (Scotland), Albert’s widow Mary Anne has been bringing up their four children, surviving on a pension of 22 shillings and six pence a week and extra pay she brought in working as a Linen Winder at Pullers. She would have been supported by her extended family including both Albert’s parents, who lived just on the other side of the road in No.26, and her own parents who were still living just around the corner in No.18 Caledonian Road.

A respectable 18 Months after his death, on 22nd December 1916, Mary Anne married Albert’s best friend from his work on the railway, Robert Drysdale – they moved into No.32 Leonard Street, eleven doors down from Albert’s house and only six doors down from Albert’s childhood home and his parents. Her widow’s was stopped when she married Albert’s best friend from his work in the Railway Station, Robert Drysdale, then still a civilian on 22 December 1916. She instead received a gratuity payment of 50 Pounds and 2 shillings – (11 Pounds 12 shillings and 16 pence of which was invested for her in the ‘War Savings Certificates). She also continued to receive pension payments for Albert‘s children o f2 shillings, 6 pence per child per week.

Five months later however, and although relatively old at 37 and in a reserved occupation, Robert was called up and mobilised into the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders at Stirling Castle on 22/23 May 1917 and posted to their 3rd (Reserve) Battalion (Army No. S/20850) at Dreghorn – likely part of the last draft of the extended ‘Derby Scheme’: Nearly one year later he too was killed during the fighting to halt the German’s Operation GEORGETTE Offensive on 19 April in the vicinity of Meteren during the critical battle of Lys. Before the war, living only one street apart, Robert & Albert worked together as porters for years at Perth Railway Station.

Robert and Mary Anne’s only son who was born in 1917 remained a bachelor and died in 1987 With no children. The names of Albert Fyfe and his best friend; Mary’s second husband,  Robert Drysdale are both remembered inscribed on the War Memorial for fallen Railway Workers in Glasgow Central Station: two of the 706 who were killed, from the 5,229 who signed up in 1914- 22% of all Caledonian railway workers . Sadly the Perth Station’s Bronze War Memorial Plaque only mentions Robert, but not yet Albert. As yet there are no known identified photographs of Robert Drysdale. Before this he had only his gravestone and his name on the Glasgow Central & Perth Station memorial plaques to record his life, his service or mark his passing.

Sadly Mary Anne died of a lung infection in October 1922 (possibly a complication of the Spanish Flu Pandemic that ravaged Europe after World War One– her five children, including Robert Drysdale Junior were taken in by various relatives. Although Robert Drysdale junior died without any heirs, Albert’s four children went on to have families of their own. Today there are 50 surviving progeny of Albert and Mary Anne Fyfe, settled in Scotland, England, Wales and Canada.