SPRATTON LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY

Albert Baldwin was born in Spratton in the summer of 1870 to a single mother, Sarah Ann Baldwin, and by the following year both he and his mother were in Brixworth Workhouse. By the time he was 11, Albert had returned to Spratton and was living with John Butlin, a shoemaker. He continued living with John Butlin and obtained work as a farm labourer when he left school, but soon joined the army (Northamptonshire Regiment).

When he was 22 he signed on in the Royal Field Artillery (3 January 1893) and underwent training at Weedon Barracks. His mother was his next of kin and living in Middle Turn, Spratton (now the Brixworth Road). Albert served in India from 1896 to 1903 as a driver and was discharged on 2 January 1905. He enlisted again on 10 May 1915 in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps when he was 45 and was posted to Isleworth in 1917. He seems to have broken his leg falling off a lorry and was finally discharged on 12 February 1920 aged 50. There is no record that he served overseas in the war, nor of him receiving any medals.

Albert died in 1943 in Northampton aged 73.