Alfred William King was born in the autumn of 1872, the oldest of eight children to Alfred and Caroline King. Alfred Sr was a labourer from Bath, Somerset, and this is where the family were raised.
Times were tough for the King family. The 1891 census recorded most of them living at 89 Avon Street in the city. Alfred Jr, meanwhile, seems to have been an inmate at the Bath Union Workhouse in Lyncombe.
On 24th May 1896, Alfred Jr married Mary Pemberton. She was the daughter of a coachman, in the next street to her in-laws. Both Alfred and his father were, by this point employed as carters, and the new groom was back living in Avon Street. The young couple went on to have two children, Alfred and Dorothy, and made their home in a small terraced house in Avondale Road, Bath.
The 1911 census recorded Alfred as being an army pensioner and night porter. While previous service records no longer exist, his enlistment papers for the First World War suggest he had spent time in both the Somerset Light Infantry and the Royal Garrison Artillery. Certainly, Alfred’s eagerness to serve his country – he joined up on 18th September 1914, at the age of 42 – suggests he had had military service in the past.
Private King’s medical report confirms that he was 5ft 5.5ins (1.66m) tall and weighed 145lbs (65.8kg). He was noted as having grey hair, light brown hair and webbed toes on both feet.
Alfred’s time in the army was to be brief. A later medical report noted that the had a “dilated stomach of old standing. [He was] absolutely unable to retain food unless stomach is washed out twice a week.” He was medically dismissed from the army on 3rd November 1914, after just 45 days.
Alfred’s incapacity for military service may have been what prompted his son, Alfred, to enlist. After time in the Somerset Light Infantry, and a rise to the rank of Lance Corporal, he was to die of wounds in February 1916. His father would live on for just five more years. He passed away on 1st April 1921 at the age of 48 years.
Alfred William King was buried alongside his son in Bath’s majestic Locksbrook Cemetery.
Read about Lance Corporal Alfred Frederick King here.
Death and Service 
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