Skerman, Alfred Herbert

Alfred, known as Herbert, was the third son of Alfred William and Eliza (nee Barton) Skerman, born at Ashwell on 4 December 1891.  He was a pupil at the Merchant Taylor School in Ashwell.

Herbert, enlisted at Hertford with the Hertfordshire Territorial Forces on 6 November 1915, Regimental Number 1822.  He then transferred to the 3/1^st Home Counties Field Artillery Brigade, Regimental Number 3294, and embarked for Ashar on the Asian Front on 9 December 1916 where he joined the A Battery 225 Brigade at Makina Masus, near Basrah, and in June 1917 was allotted a new Regimental Number 901581.  He then went on to Baghdad before returning to England for demobilisation on 23 September 1919.  He survived the War.

Herbert was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

He is commemorated on the St Mary’s Church Ashwell Roll of Honour.

Before enlisting he was a farm labourer.

He married Mabel Victoria Robinson on 22 July 1922 at St Mary’s Church, Ashwell, Hertfordshire.  They had one son, Thomas Herbert, born in 1923.

The 1939 census shows them living at Ashwell with Herbert a brewery lorry driver.

Herbert died in June 1957 and is buried in St Mary’s Church Cemetery, Ashwell.

Herbert’s brothers Wilfred, Arthur and Alfred served in the War and survived.