Alan Herbert Mainwaring West was the son of Charles H and Ada E West.  He appears on the 1901 census of England and Wales as a three year old living at 2 York Villas, Brighton.  The Household comprised Charles H West (aged 39 and noted as “assessor and Collector Hall Tax”), his wife Ada West (aged 36) and their three children: Ralph M West (aged seven), Alan (aged three) and Brenda M West (aged eight months).  All three children and Ada West had been born in Brighton; Charles was born in Henfield.

 

Also registered on the census return were two servants: Kate Divall (aged 24, from Ringmer, working as a domestic servant) and Ella M Godding (aged 15, from Brighton, working as a domestic nurse).

 

Alan was born in 1897, his birth registered at Brighton in the June quarter of that year.  Chailey Parish Magazine first notes him in June 1915 as a cadet serving in India.  In May 1916 it notes that he is serving with the 36th Sikhs and the following month notes that his rank is that of second lieutenant.  By December 1917 he had been promoted and Chailey Parish Magazine duly recorded that month that his rank was now lieutenant.

 

The following month however, on 7th January 1918, he was killed in a bomb explosion accident in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq).  He is buried in Amara War Cemetery, grave reference XIV.C.3.  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Debt of Honour Register notes that he was the “son of Charles Herbert and Ada Elizabeth West, of Patterdale, Newick, Sussex. Born at Brighton.”

 

Ralph M West also served his King and Country during the First World War and survived.

 

 

Sources and Acknowledgements

 

• 1901 Census of England and Wales
• Chailey Parish Magazine
• The Commonwealth War Graves’ Commission’s Debt of Honour Register
• Officers Died in the Great War