Selected Biographies

Almack, Miss Dorothy Mary – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 16.2.1884.[1]  Parents: Henry Horne Almack (Justice of the Peace and Magistrate at the Long Melford Petty Sessions) and Rose Rebecca [née Head].  Family Connections: Sister to Richard Almack [b1885] and Harold Almack [b1889].  Home: Almacks, Hall Street, Long Melford (1891 to 1939).  Service Record: Miss Almack was a National Registration Enumerator in 1915.  Died: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk in 1975.

Almack, Harold – Born: Hampstead, Essex on 13.4.1889.[2]  Parents: Henry Horne Almack (Justice of the Peace and Magistrate at the Long Melford Petty Sessions) and Rose Rebecca [née Head].  Family Connections: Brother to Dorothy Mary Almack [b1884] and Richard Almack [b1885].  Home: Hall Street, Long Melford (1891), Ceduro Boarding School, Stanway, Colchester, Essex (1901), Imperial Hotel, Bloomsbury, London (1911), 186 Park Road, Hendon, Middlesex [1926 to 1930], 265 Hendon Way, Hendon [1931], 367 Hendon Way, Hendon [1933 to 1934], 32 Allington Road, Hendon, [1935], Hampden Place, Church Road, Thame, Oxfordshire (1939), Thomason House, Frogs Hall Lane, Lavenham, Suffolk [1968].[3]  Occupation: Motor Engineer (1911), Soldier [1914 to 1925], Retired Motor Engineer (1939).  Married: Olive Edna Zai Deverall in 1918.  Service Record: Recorded as Sgt.14 with 19^th [Service] Battalion [2^nd Public Schools], Royal Fusiliers [City of London] Regiment, posted to France from 14.11.1915 as part of 98^th Brigade, 33^rd Division and stationed at Morbecque, Nord Pas-de-Calais in France.  Harold returned to England on 18.3.1916 and was granted a commission on 6.7.1916 as a Second Lieutenant, joining 9^th [Service] Battalion, Suffolk Regiment as part of 71^st Brigade, 6^th Division in the Somme Valley.  On 13 September 9^th Suffolks took part in an attack on the German strongpoint known as the Quadrilateral.  As soon as the men advanced into no man’s land withering fire from the strongpoint made further progress impossible.  Eighteen men from the Battalion died that day, Second Lieutenant Almack was one of the nearly two hundred others who were wounded.[4]  He was later made Lieutenant in 13^th [Reserve] Battalion [Cambridgeshire], Suffolk Regiment, retiring from military service in 1925.[5]  Died: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk on 28.5.1968.[6]

Almack, Richard – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 4.3.1885.[7]  Parents: Henry Horne Almack (Justice of the Peace and Magistrate at the Long Melford Petty Sessions) and Rose Rebecca [née Head].  Family Connections: Brother to Dorothy Mary Almack [b1884] and Harold Almack [b1889].  Home: Hall Street, Long Melford (1891), Eastmans, Royal Navy Academy, Northwood Park, Crawley, Winchester, Hampshire (1901), Hall Street, Long Melford (1911), 48 Abingdon Mansions, Kensington, London [1914], Priory House, Monk Sherbourne, Hampshire [1921], Hall Farm Bungalow, Brightlingsea, Essex (1939), 2 Wendover Lodge, Welwyn, Hertfordshire [1956], The Spinney, Rotherfield, Sussex [1962].  Occupation: Common Law Solicitor’s Clerk at Euston Station for the London and North Western Railway [1917],[8] Solicitor and Assistant to the Chief Legal Advisor of the London Midland and Scottish Railway (1939), Solicitor [1956].  Married: Muriel Loraine Harcourt in 1917.  Service Record: Richard enlisted on 10.8.1914 as Pte. [TP/1/5]1236 with 1^st Battalion, Honourable Artillery Company [Infantry], being posted to France from 18.9.1914.  He was granted a commission on 8.3.1915, rising to Captain in the Inland Water Transport section of the Royal Engineers.[9]  Died: Rotherfield, Sussex on 1.1.1962.[10]

Notes – [1] Date of birth from the Baptism Register 21.3.1884, Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford. [2] Date of birth from Baptism Register 18.6.1889, Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford. [3] For various addresses see the Electoral Registers for Hendon. [4] For details of 9^th Suffolks movements during the Somme Offensive see War Diary [The National Archives – WO 95/1625/1].  For details of the incident where Almack was wounded, see Lieutenant-Colonel C. C. R. Murphy, The History of the Suffolk Regiment 1914-1927 [London: Hutchinson and Co, 1928], pp.194-96. [5] Medal Roll [WO 329] and Medal Index Card [WO 372]. [6] Date of death and final residence see the National Probate Calendar. [7] Date of birth from Baptism Register 18.6.1889, Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford. [8] Occupation taken from UK, Railway Employment Records, 1833-1956; also address and profession taken from London Gazette 10.2.1956, p.864. [9] Honourable Artillery Company Membership Lists and Record Card, Medal Roll [WO 329], and Medal Index Card [WO 372]. [10] Date of death from the National Probate Calendar.