Mann, Albert Ernest

Albert’s parents were Henry Thomas Mann and Sarah Annie Mann nee Bagley.  Henry’s father George (Albert’s grandfather), was a farmer, living at Longbridge, just outside Warwick.

Henry was a railway signalman and appears to have moved around the country. At the time of the 1891 census, Henry and Sarah with their 3-year-old son George and 1-year-old daughter Alice, both of whom were born in Didsbury near Manchester, were living at Starkholmes, Matlock. Albert was born in March of the following year and in October of that year, Henry died, just 5 days before his 28th birthday. Henry was returned to his father for burial in Warwick’s Birmingham Road cemetery where his grave also memorialises his two sons killed in the war.

Sarah moved to Liverpool at some point after Henry’s death and there re-married (to Enoch Ashton Jones on 27 September 1899).

In 1911 Albert appears on the census as a visitor to the Longbridge farm of his uncle William Edward, who is 30 years old, having taken over from his father George.  Also living at the farm are Edward’s mother, Mary Ann (Albert’s Grandmother) and Ellen, his aunt.

Albert travelled to Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1913 intending to farm.

Albert married Annie Frances Irene Keight on 18 September 1916 at St Mary’s, Warwick. Annie’s father was a blacksmith who worked making cycles and motor cars; her mother had a draper’s shop, where Annie worked as an assistant before her marriage. It is not known how they met, but as her brother Lawrence had emigrated to Calgary to farm in 1912, maybe Albert met her through him.
They had no more than 4 or 5 days together before Albert returned to the Western Front and they had no children. Annie remarried in 1937.

Albert’s brother, George Henry Mann also fought in the war, and died in 1917. They are both commemorated on their grandfather’s grave in Warwick Cemetery, where the inscription reads:

In Loving Remembrance of HENRY THOMAS MANN born October 6th 1864 fell asleep October 1 1892.
To the Loved Memory of my dear grandson ALBERT ERNEST MANN who was killed in action at Vimy Ridge April 9th 1917 aged 25.
To the Treasured Memory of my beloved grandson GEORGE HENRY MANN who entered into rest March 10th 1919 aged 31 years

The following appeared in the Warwick Advertiser on 5th May 1917