Albert Mitchell
is noted in Chailey Parish Magazine in October 1914 as serving his King and Country.
In October 1915 he is noted as Mitchell, S-Sergt A, 4th Hussars, France,
updating this the following month with the information that he is a shoeing smith. (I
am presuming that SS for “shoeing smith” was mis-transcribed as “staff sergeant” and then corrected
the following month). He appears to have served throughout the war and his name appears in the final published roll call in
July 1919 as Mitchell, Shoeing-Smith A, 4th Hussars.
There are a two
Albert Mitchell / Hussars possibilities noted at The National Archives: 6561 (later 45282) Private Albert Mitchell and 8214
Private Albert Mitchell and further research is necessary to positively identify him.
Albert Basil Mitchell
was the fifth eldest child in a family of nine children (eight of them boys).
His parents, Charles
and Emily Mitchell, were married in 1880 and by the time the 1881 census was taken they were living at 1 Upper Birchland,
Newick. Both were aged 22 with Charles (born in Lindfield) working as an agricultural
labourer. Ten years on, by the time the 1891 census was taken, Charles and Emily
were living at what looks like Plummers Den Cottage No 1 in Lindfield and had five children:
Charles Mitchell (aged nine), Henry J Mitchell (aged eight), Alfred Thomas Mitchell (aged six), John Mitchell (aged
three) and Albert Basil Mitchell (aged eleven months).
By the time the
1901 census was taken the family was still living at the same Lindfield address but there were now more brothers – and
a sister. New arrivals and their ages in 1901 were: Elsie Mitchell (aged seven),
Walter Mitchell (aged five), Wallace Sidney Mitchell (aged four) and Maurice Gilbert Mitchell (aged nine months).
Alfred and Albert
Mitchell do not appear on the 1901 census at the family’s home address. They
were at the house of William and Mercy Plummer in Plumpton. Alfred, aged 16 is
noted as a grocer’s porter; Albert, aged ten, is recorded as a schoolboy. The
two boys were nephews of William and Mercy Plummer: Mercy Sophia Plummer was the half sister of their mother, Emily.
Albert Mitchell’s
brothers Alfred, Henry, John, Wallace (Sidney) and Maurice, also served during the First World War. All of them survived. Their distant relatives, the Plummer brothers were less fortunate.
Albert, Alexander and Owen Plummer all lost their lives.
Sources and Acknowledgements
- 1881 Census of England and Wales
- 1891 Census of England and Wales
- 1901 Census of England and Wales
- England
and Wales, Civil Registration
Index: 1837-1983
- The National Archives’
on-line medal information card index
- Chailey Parish Magazine
