Albert Higgs Private 30751 - 17th Bn. York and Lancaster Regiment (Labour Corps) Killed in action on Tuesday 23rd April 1918, age 37. Buried Chocques Military Cemetery Albert Higgs as born in Gnosall 1882 to Edward and Elizabeth (Lizzie) Higgs and christened at St Lawrence Church, Gnosall along with his sister Lizzie. In 1901 the family were at Wolverhampton with Edward Higgs working as a barge boatman. Albert married Mary Ann Foster in Wolverhampton in 1907. Her father William Foster was a boatman. In 1908 their daughter Gladys was born.  Mary Ann’s contribution to Albert’s grave record mentions “children” so there were evidently more. In 1911 Albert was living with his widowed father-in-law in Wolverhampton, working as a GW Railway Labourer. With them were Mary Ann, Gladys, and a nephew and niece born at Ellesmere. Albert enlisted as Private 30751 into the 17th Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment (Labour Corps) and later transferred to the 30 th  Coy. Labour Corps as no. 17750.  He was killed in action, perhaps at Bethune on the Lys, on 23rd April 1918, age 37 and was awarded the Victory and British medals. He is buried at Chocques Military Cemetery (a major clearing station for casualties), Grave IV.A.25. His inscription reads: “Gone but not forgotten. Ever remembered by wife and children”.  - Mrs A Higgs, 40 Bagnall Street, Springfield, Wolverhampton.” The record states “Son of Edward and Elizabeth Higgs; husband of Mary Ann Higgs, of 40, Bagnall St., Wolverhampton.” Albert Higgs is also remembered on a family memorial at Springfield,  Wolverhampton: “Higgs Albert Private 30751 17th Bn York and Lancaster Regiment Transferred to (17750) 30th Coy Labour Corps Killed in Action 23rd April 1918 age 37 Son of Edward and Elizabeth Higgs; husband of Mary Ann Higgs of 40 Bagnall St. Wolverhampton. CHOCQUES MILITARY CEMETERY. IV. A. 25. “ Historical Information Chocques was occupied by Commonwealth forces from the late autumn of 1914 to the end of the war. The village was at one time the headquarters of I Corps and from January 1915 to April 1918, No.1 Casualty Clearing Station was posted there. Most of the burials from this period are of casualties who died at the clearing station from wounds received at the Bethune front. From April to September 1918, during the German advance on this front, the burials were carried out by field ambulances, divisions and fighting units. The groups of graves of a single Royal Artillery brigade in Plot II, Row A, and of the 2nd Seaforths in II D, and III A, are significant of the casualties of the 4th Division at that time. The big collective grave in VI A contains the remains of 29 soldiers of the 4th King's Liverpool Regiment killed in a troop train in April 1918. The stone memorial in IA is placed behind the graves of eight men of the 3rd Squadron, RFC, killed in a bomb explosion on the aerodrome at Merville in March 1915. Chocques Military Cemetery now contains 1,801 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 134 of then unidentified. There are also 82 German war graves, 47 being unidentified.