Albert Search was born in Burford, Oxfordshire, in the autumn of 1891. One of thirteen children, he was the third son to William and Fanny Search. William was a farm labourer, and this is work into which Albert followed.
The 1911 census found the family living on Guildenford, close to the town centre and St John the Baptist’s Church. Three of the household were employed, three of the children were still at school, and they had a lodger – 71-year-old widower Steven Lange, who was also working on the farm.
On 15th August 1915, Albert married Annie Pearse. The same age as her new husband, she was also from Burford, and was the son of a cowman, possible connected to the same farm as her father-in-law. The couple set up home in Lawrence Lane, and went on to have a child, Albert Jr, who was born the following year.
Albert was called upon to serve his country some time after the wedding, and he joined the Gloucestershire Regiment as a Private. Assigned to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, he was soon sent to the Eastern Mediterranean. Private Search would spend more than two years there, but contracted malaria.
He was in hospital six months, and was afterwards invalided home for a month. He then returned back to his unit in Bristol, was sent back to hospital, and was discharged in 1920.
[Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette: Friday 9th September 1921]
Albert returned home to Annie and his son. When his health had recovered enough, he returned to farm work, and the 1921 census recorded him working on Tangley Farm. During that summer, however, his health deteriorated once more:
..on August 23 he was taken ill and died within eight days. Deceased was a native of Burford, where he was well known and highly respected.
[Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette: Friday 9th September 1921]
Albert Search was just 29 years old when he died. His body was laid to rest in the graveyard of St John the Baptist’s Church: this was where he had both been christened and married, and was at the end of the road from where his widow still lived.
In dying when he did, Albert became one of the last servicemen eligible for a Commonwealth War Grave.
Death and Service 