Category: Military
Rank: Corporal 9546
Regiment or Ship: 1st Bn Coldstream Guards
Service Number(s): 9546
Occupation: Farm Labourer
Date of Birth: 1895
Place of Birth: Ripe, Sussex
Date of Death: 1954
Place of Death: Hemel Hempstead
Address: 22 Windsor Road, Bexhill
Photos and newspaper articles
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Family Information
Great-Grandparents: Peter, born 1812 in Ripe, and Elizabeth Westgate, born 1820 in Blatchington. In 1881 Peter and Elizabeth were living at 29 Ripe Lane, and Peter was working as an Agricultural Labourer.
Grandparents: Samuel Westgate, born 1844 in Ripe, and Jane Westgate, born in 1854 in Westham, died 1916. Samuel and Jane were living at 28 Ripe Lane in 1881 and Samuel was, like his father, employed as an Agricultural Labourer.
Mother: Elizabeth Ann Westgate, born 1875 in Ripe. Elizabeth Ann Westgate married Walter Beckingham in 1899 in the Hailsham district, and in 1911 were living in Ripe Lane. Walter was a Blacksmith and Albert was working as a Farm Labourer.
Step-Siblings:
Arthur George Beckingham, born 1900 in Nutfield.
William Edward Beckingham, born 1906 in Ripe.
Albert had an uncle, Elizabeth’s brother, Stephen Westgate, born in1884 in Ripe. Stephen was working as a Farm Labourer in 1901 and was living, with his mother, Jane, and Albert, in St. John the Baptist area of Ripe.
First World War Experience
As Albert’s service records have not survived, apart from his Medal Roll Index Card, we only know his place in the war years from what we can glean from a local Bexhill newspaper – the Bexhill Observer. He enlisted on either 12th or 17th August, 1914.
On 24th December 1914 the following article appeared in the Observer telling us a great deal about Albert’s first few months in the conflict. Newspaper article _
Again, in the Observer, on 6th June 1916, the following article appeared:
“The many friends of Corporal A. Westgate of the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, will be glad and proud to hear that he has been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for gallantry at the Front. The recipient of this coveted honour is the nephew of Sergeant-Major Brockhurst, of the Royal Engineers, who is very well known in Bexhill. Corporal Westgate was wounded at Ypres at the end of 1914, and we hope to publish shortly the full account of how he won the D.C.M.”
Apart from the D.C.M. Albert was awarded the following medals:-
Victory Medal.
British Medal.
14 Star.