Alfred Ernest's Story.
EARLY LIFE
Alfred Ernest Kirkland was born in Macclesfield on 18 June 1887, the son of Margaret (née Faragher) and Robert Kirkland, a coal office clerk. In 1891, three-year-old Alfred was living at 69 Higginbotham Street (now South Park Road), Macclesfield, with his parents and siblings Walter (16), Alice (14), Clara (12), Jessie (9), Frank (7) and Florence (8 months).
Alfred was educated at Mill Street Wesleyan School and attended St John's Church School from 1891 until 1897, when he passed standard grade IV at the age of ten. As he is named on the Christ Church School war memorial it's likely that he later attended that school.
Alfred's father had died by 1901 and the family, which then also included Ada (8), had moved along Higginbotham Street to number 79. Aged thirteen, Alfred was employed as a card lacer for a silk weaver.
By 1911 Alfred had moved to Manchester to work as a cloth embroiderer; at the time of the census he was lodging at 133 Stowell Avenue, Longsight, Manchester with the Taylor family. The following year he married the youngest daughter, Lucy, who was also working as a cloth embroiderer.
WW1 SERVICE
Alfred enlisted in Manchester in June 1916, joining the Manchester Regiment with service number 29302. He was drafted to Egypt a year later and transferred to the Essex Regiment. Alfred was recorded in the Army records as killed in action in Syria on 27 August 1917.
Alfred's death was reported in the Macclesfield Times on 21 September 1917:
Miss Kirkland, 64 Ryle St, Macclesfield, has received news of the reported death in Egypt on August 27th of her brother, Signaller Alfred Ernest Kirkland, Essex Regt, whose wife and child reside in Manchester. The War Office intimation was addressed to the signaller's wife. A native of Macclesfield, Signaller Kirkland was thirty years of age and was educated at St John's and Mill Street Wesleyan schools. He was formerly in the employ of Mr A W Hewetson and Messrs Sheldon's, and went to Manchester about ten years ago, being engaged as an embroiderer. He was married five years ago and joined the Army in June, 1916. Private Kirkland had only been in Egypt about two months. Private Frank Kirkland, his brother, is serving with a labour company in France.
COMMEMORATION
Private Alfred Kirkland is buried in grave ref. XXIX. F. 12 in the Gaza War Cemetery. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission holds casualty details for Private Alfred Kirkland, and he is listed on the Imperial War Museum’s Lives of the First World War website.
In Macclesfield, Alfred Kirkland is commemorated on the the Park Green, Town Hall, St Michael's Church and Christ Church School war memorials.
NOTES
Brother of Frank Kirkland, who served with the Labour Corps.
SOURCES
GRO (England & Wales) Index: Births
Census (England & Wales): 1891, 1901, 1911
National School Admission Registers and Log-books (Find My Past)
Soldiers Died in the Great War (Find My Past)
WWI British Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects (Ancestry)
Commonwealth War Graves Commission website
Lives of the First World War website
Macclesfield Times: 21 September 1917
Research by Rosie Rowley, Macclesfield.