Albert Hancock

Albert Hancock, the third of the eight children of Robert Hancock and his wife Elizabeth, was born on 1st January 1899. Robert Hancock was born in Fulwood in 1867, and worked at Bamford and Fulwood as a stonemason and latterly also a farmer, before he moved to farm at Sheep Hill Farm, Ringinglow, sometime between May 1902 and February 1907; this was still his address when he died in 1949.

Elizabeth, born in Fulwood in 1870, was the daughter of labourer Thomas Jeffcock and his wife Ruth; before her marriage she had been in service in the household of a cutlery manufacturer on Ivy Park Road, Ranmoor.

We know that Albert attended Dore School: he registered there together with his older brother George and younger sister Ruth on 31st August 1908. George left school on 21st January 1910, aged 13, but Albert’s leaving date is not recorded.

Two of the Hancock brothers, Albert and his eldest brother Morris, served in the Army in the first World War. No military record has been found for George, and it seems likely that he was exempted from military service to work on the farm. The three youngest Hancock boys, Frank (born 1907), Lloyd (born 1911) and Robert junior (born 1912) were too young for military service.

Albert attested on 28th December 1916, when he was very nearly 18 years old. At the time, he was a farm labourer (presumably working for his father), and was 5’10” tall, with brown hair, blue eyes, a fresh complexion, and a scar on his right forehead. His religion was recorded as Wesleyan. He was put on the Army Reserve list, and was not mobilised until 23rd May 1918.

After mobilisation, he served first as a Private in the 6th Battalion of the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment (Regimental Number 51881). On 7th October 1918, he was transferred to the 13th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry (Regimental Number 47392), and joined his battalion in France on 9th October 1918. Very shortly after he arrived in France, on 23rd October 1918, he was declared missing in action, presumed dead. He was 19. His body was presumably later found, as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records that he was buried in Cross Roads Cemetery, Fontaine-au-bois, France. He is also commemorated on the family monument in Dore churchyard, which appears to have been originally erected in his memory; in due course it was also used to commemorate other family members. He was awarded the British War and Victory medals.