THIS week we remember Albert Victor Shrimpton who was killed in action serving with the Machine Gun Corps on May 16, 100 years ago.
Born in Crabbs Cross in 1894 he was one of five children born to Victor and Emily Shrimpton known to have survived infancy.
His father was a grocer in Crabbs Cross and the family lived above the shop. By the time he was 17 Albert was working as a boot maker’s apprentice.
He served as a private in the war and by May 1917 his unit, the 152nd company, was attached to the 51st Highland Division and was in the thick of the action during the Battle of Arras, which lasted from April 9 to May 17.
On May 11 the 51st were ordered to launch the sixth and final attack on the village of Roeux, to the east of Arras.
Despite initial gains, by the night of May 15-16 and after a heavy German bombardment, a fierce counterattack was launched by the enemy along both sides of the railway line to the north of the village, on the village itself and along the northern bank of the River Scarpe.
Although these attacks initially met with some success the 51st, together with other British units, pushed them back, regaining most of the ground lost by the end of the evening. Killed and wounded are impossible to pin down for this one assault but during the entire Arras campaign from April to May, the 51st suffered some 6,500 casualties including Albert Shrimpton.
He has no known grave, but is remembered on the Arras Memorial in France, and his mother placed his name on the family gravestone in Plymouth Road Cemetery in Redditch.
The inscription reads: Victor of Crabbs Cross died 15th July 1920, aged 54, also Albert Victor only son died Belgium, 16th May 1917 aged 24.
With thanks to The westernfrontassociation.com
‘Valda’ from www.rootschat.com/
Remembering Redditch’s Fallen Heroes.
