Private Albert Stronge
775564
Born: 1890 Farnworth, Bolton, Lancashire, England
Lived in Palgrave, Ontario
Enlisted with the 126th Peel Battalion, served with 116th
Killed in Action – May 21, 1917 Vimy Sector, France
The story of Private Albert Stronge
When someone who grew up in Canada reads that he was educated at Bolton Grammar School their mind immediately pictures a one or two room schoolhouse. The school would be located on the edge of a relatively remote farming community. Children from the local farms with their modest homesteads would travel great distances for their modest education. The mind images youngsters making the prototypical 5 km trek, through 2-3 feet deep snow, on a route that happened to require a long upwards climb interestingly on both on the walk to and from school. However, after a few minutes on the Google, one discovers that they can not be more wrong.
Being educated (not going to school) at Grammar school in Bolton, UK, was a bit different. He won a scholarship to and attended Farnsworth Grammar school in Bolton. He followed up his studies at both The Bolton School and Owen’s College. These buildings remind one more of Hogwarts than the dusty shack originally envisioned. Adorned with stately gated entrances and expansive well-groomed grounds, from the exterior his school would resemble a university campus. Once inside, everything would remind them of the appearances and purposeful countenance of the elite. The boys entering these institutions would emerge as well-educated and refined young men…expected to be the individuals the empire is relying upon to lead Britons into the next generation. This was the early life and expectation of one Albert Stronge.
At the age of 20, with his education completed, young Albert decided to make his life and fortune in the Commonwealth country of Canada. His destination would not be more alien to the life and circumstances he had become accustomed to. From a heavily congested and polluted metropolis to the sparsely populated farming community of Palgrave…a place that was accented by small town people with small town values. Tradition. Faith. Hard work and manual labour. It would have been quite the culture shock for the young man. However, he was well respected by the community and was duly missed when he decided at the age of 26 to enlist with the 126th Peel Battalion. Once again, the call of duty won the young man over.
The records suggest that he was able to secure a position as a scout with the 126th and trained for this role while at Camp Borden. The men proceeded to England in the summer and he was soon transferred to the 116th Battalion. Throughout the fall and winter, the men would train at Bramschott then Whitley before moving to France before the great operations at Vimy Ridge.
In early part of 1917, the 116th Battalion was primarily included as a reserve or support battalion. More time was spent with shovel in hand or hauling supplies than handling a weapon. Thus, like the others who came to share Albert’s unfortunate fate was not gained by a glorified dash across a crater filled battlefield while dodging a downpours of machine gun bullets. Rather their ultimate demise was more often attributed to the unfortunate circumstance of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The randomness of shellfire took the lives of many men on the Western Front. And on the 21st of May sometime while the men moved back into the line to relieve the Royal Canadian Regiment young Albert was hit. As random and purposeless as a death could be…another promising young life was snuffed out.
Today, two parish churches an ocean apart, share memorial plaques with this name on it. One, is in the St. Alban’s Church in his adopted home of Palgrave, located just down the road from Bolton Ontario. The other is at St. John’s Church, located in the community of his youth, Farnsworth…located just down the road from Bolton, UK. 104 years may have passed since his passing and still citizens from both communities, both located just outside of a town of the same name can together remember the loss of the one of their own, Private Albert Stronge.