Albert Edward Colston was born in the spring of 1887 in Bath, Somerset. The oldest of seven children, his parents were Thomas and Elizabeth Colston. Thomas was a carpenter and the family were raised in Lyncombe, to the south of the city centre.

Elizabeth died in 1905, by which time Albert had left school. He worked with Thomas and, by the time of the 1911 census, the family – father and four children at home – had moved to a terraced house in the suburbs of Twerton.

During this time, Albert volunteered with the Somerset Light Infantry. When war came to Europe, however, he was enlisted into the Royal Engineers. He joined on 28th February 1916, and was assigned to the Wessex Field Company. His service record show that he was 5ft 8ins (1.73m) tall, of normal physical development and with good vision.

A few months after enlisting, Albert married Alice Selway. She was a groom’s daughter from Bath who, at the time of their marriage, was working as a housemaid in a boarding house in the centre of the city.

Sapper Colston spent the next year on home soil. In March 1917, however, he was discharged from the army as he was deemed no longer medically fit for active duty. Sadly, the records do not confirm the complaint that led to his dismissal.

It is likely that he returned home when he was discharged. He died in Bath just weeks later, on 4th April 1917. He was thirty years of age.

Albert Edward Colston was laid to rest in St James’ Cemetery in his home city, the same location as Elizabeth, mother and son reunited again.

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Alice married for a second time in May 1919. He husband was William Keepen, and the couple went on to have a son, Reginald, who was born in 1920. Reginald died in 1937, while Alice lived until 1918. The couple were buried in Haycombe Cemetery on the outskirts of Bath.

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