SPRATTON LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY

Albert Mains was born in Northampton on 3 February 1890 to William Mains, a boot and shoe finisher, and his wife Annie.  Annie died while Albert was still a boy and he went to live with his aunt and uncle, Edwin and Mary Astell, in Spratton and attended the village primary school. When he left school he returned to Northampton to live with his widowed father, his brother, two sisters and an aunt in 48 Cleveland Road. Albert became a baker.

He joined the Northamptonshire Regiment in October 1914 and was sent overseas with the British Expeditionary Force a month later. He was seriously wounded in the spring of 1915 and sent home to England until June 1915 when he returned to the fighting in France.  He received a gunshot wound to the head in October 1915 and a few days later returned to   England.  Once again he was sent back to the fighting until he was wounded for the third time in January 1917. This time he remained in England and was transferred to the Army Reserve in June 1917. In August 1917 he received the Silver War Badge to wear at home to show he had been wounded in the war. He was finally discharged from the army on 30 January 1918.  He had married in September 1911 and he and his wife, Florence Ada, and their two children, moved to Bedfordshire.

Albert received the 1914 Star and Clasp, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He died on 28 September 1953 in the Sanatorium at Hollowell.