Rifleman Albert Hawthorn
S/18394 16th Rifle Brigade
Missing in Action 31st July 1917, aged 21
Lived at 25 Brunswick Street
Commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Belgium
Burnley Express 1st September 1917

WHILST GOING BRAVELY FORWARD
(Burnley Express 1st September 1917)

Rifleman Albert Hawthorne, 18394, Rifle Brigade, son of Mr. and Mrs. Hawthorn, 25 Brunswick-street, Burnley, was killed in action on July 31st. He was 21 years of age. He enlisted on January 22nd of last year, and was with the R.A.M.C. for three months. In August a year ago he was sent on active service. He was connected with the Salvation Army, Holme Street, where a memorial service will be held on Sunday, September 9th. The deceased soldier’s last letter home was written on July 26th. In it he mentioned how please he was the previous day to meet his brother, Edmund, also in the Rifle Brigade, but belonging to a different battalion. The latter came home on leave on August 6th but did not know of his younger brothers’ fate.
Rifleman Albert Hawthorn is the sixth of a party of many “pals” to make the supreme sacrifice. A brother-in-law, Pte. Harold Smith, was killed on February 16th 1915. There are nine cousins in the Army, all on active service, and one in the Navy.
Mrs. Hawthorne has received a letter from her sons officer, who wrote from a London hospital :- “your letter addressed to me at the front has been forwarded to me here. I have the painful duty of informing you that your son was killed in the battle of July 31st last. I cannot tell you how sorry I am, and trust me when I say he died going bravely forward it will help to lighten your great loss. I took quite an interest in your boy because he came from the same county as myself. I always found him a willing and cheerful boy and always helping others, and willing and keen to do his best. He was of rather a quiet nature, and I know he was most popular with his comrades. He will be a great loss to the company. You will be pleased to hear our battalion did very well in the push, and gained our objectives with very few casualties. It was after we had consolidated that the Boche shelled us very heartily, and we had a good few of the boys killed and wounded – Yours sincerely, A. Bain, Second Lieut.”