Private Alfred Thoburn
GS/74685 7th Royal Fusiliers
Died of Wounds 24th July 1918, whilst a P.O.W., aged 19
Lived at 27 Morley Street
Buried in Niederzwehren Cemetery, Cassel, Germany V111 E2
Commemorated on Burnley Lads Club Memorial
Burnley Express 21st September 1918

DIED AS A PRISONER
Wounded captive in Three Weeks (Burnley Express 21st September 1918)

The case of the death of Pte. Alfred Thoburn, Royal Fusiliers, 74685, whose father lives at 27 Morley-street, Burnley is particularly sad.
He had only been out since March 10, and was reported wounded and missing as from March 27.
Then the news came in two or three postcards, that he was a prisoner, and that he had been wounded in the back but was going on alright. The family's relieved anxiety has now been turned to the deepest grief by the news that he died on July 24.
This was contained in a letter from Cassel, Germany, through R. Pinchon, C.S.M. president of the "British Help Committee". This states " I regret to report the death of 74685 Pte. Thoburn. Royal Fusiliers, who passed away in the camp hospital on the 24th inst. (July). He was buried today in the cemetery attached. Sergt. Spargo, chaplain read the burial service. Many of his comrades followed and sang hymn No. 184 round his grave"
Pte. A. Thoburn was only 19 years of age, and joined the Army on April 27. 1917, going out on March 10 this year, being wounded and captured within three weeks. Formerly he was a weaver at the Wood Top Manufacturing Co.'s Springfield Mill, and he was a member of the Burnley Lads Club. There is one brother, Robert, in the Army and he is serving in Mesopotamia.