Mobile: 0794 120 1995
...was a ringer at Hilperton.
Rifleman 45009 Alfred Pocock of the Royal Irish Rifles 12th Battalion was a bell ringer at Hilperton.
On 20 November 1917, the British Third Army launched an attack towards Cambrai. The method of assault was new, with no preliminary artillery bombardment. Instead, a large number of tanks were used in significant force.
He was killed in action near Havincourt, France on 22 November, aged 31, and is remembered on Panel 10 at the Cambrai Memorial. On an elevated terrace in Louverval Military Cemetery in Louveral, France, the Cambrai Memorial commemorates more than 7,000 servicemen from Britain and South Africa who died in the Battle of Cambrai whose graves are not known.
His next of kin were Mary Pocock (wife) and parents Henry and Sarah. Before the war Alfred worked in the family florist business and had married Mary Austin in the spring of 1915. It is likely that he was conscripted into the army in 1916 joining the Rifle Brigade and was then transferred to the Royal Irish Rifles.
The bell ringers of St. Michael's Church will ring in his memory this evening. RIP.