Albert Castell
He was a coal miner.
- Family History
- Military history
- Extra information
- Photographs
Albert was the son of Thomas Castell and his second wife, Elizabeth Selina (née Bourne).
His father Thomas was born in 1852 in Yelvertoft, Northants, the son of Slymm Castell.
Thomas (22) married Sarah Ann Miller (21) at Newhall Wesleyan Chapel, Derbyshire (registration district Burton on Trent), on 29 December 1873. Sarah signed the marriage certificate with her mark. Six births, surname Castell/mother's maiden name Miller, were recorded in the Burton on Trent registration district: Sarah Ann and Alice both b. 1874 JFM d. 1874 J/F/M, Slymm b. 1875, Emma b. 1877, William b. 1879 d. 1879 and Henry b. 1880. All the children were born in Newhall.
Thomas, a collier, his wife and their three surviving children, Slymm, Emma and Henry, were living on Main Road, Stanton and Newhall, in 1881. Their youngest child, Sarah Ann, was born in late December 1884 (birth registered 1885) and was baptised at the United Methodist Free Chapel, Newhall, on 14 January at the age of three weeks. Her mother had died in December 1884.
Thomas married Elizabeth Selina Bourne in 1886; the couple had four children, Daisy b. Newhall 1886, Olive b. Hoyland 1891, and Joseph b. 1894 and Albert b. 1895 who were both born in Nottingham.
Thomas and Elizabeth were living on Princes Street, Nether Hoyland, Barnsley, in 1891 with the four children from Thomas's first marriage and their two daughters, Daisy and Olive. Thomas gave his employment as coal miner/local preacher, and his eldest son was also a coal miner.
The family, apart from Slymm who had married the previous year (reg. Barnsley), had moved to Nottingham by 1901. Thomas and his son Henry were coal miners while Emma was a hosiery machine hand, Sarah a cigar maker and Daisy a lace hand. Their three youngest children, Olive, Joseph and Albert, were school age.
Thomas and Elizabeth had moved to Redland Grove, Carlton, by 1911. Also in the household were their unmarried daughters Emma and Olive, their sons Joseph and Albert who, like Thomas, were coal miner hewers and Thomas's widowed daughter, Sarah Ann Stanton (m. 1907 Ernest Stanton) and her daughter Olive Elizabeth (b. 1908). There was also a lodger, John Henry Bingham (15), a coal miner/pony driver who continued to live with the Castells when they later moved to Doncaster and was described on the 1921 Census as their adopted son.
Thomas's death was recorded in Doncaster in September 1924. His widow Elizabeth and her unmarried son Joseph were living with her married daughter, Olive Rawson and her husband in Armthorp when the 1939 Register was compiled. Elizabeth died in 1944.
Albert Castell enlisted at Doncaster and served with the 2nd Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.
Albert was killed in action at Hill 60 on 18 April 1915. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium (Pane 47).
History of Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (extract): 'The Menin Gate is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. Broadly speaking, the Salient stretched from Langemarck in the north to the northern edge in Ploegsteert Wood in the south, but it varied in area and shape throughout the war. The Salient was formed during the First Battle of Ypres in October and November 1914, when a small British Expeditionary Force succeeded in securing the town before the onset of winter, pushing the German forces back to the Passchendaele Ridge. The Second Battle of Ypres began in April 1915 when the Germans released poison gas into the Allied lines north of Ypres. This was the first time gas had been used by either side and the violence of the attack forced an Allied withdrawal and a shortening of the line of defence ... The battles of the Ypres Salient claimed many lives on both sides and it quickly became clear that the commemoration of members of the Commonwealth forces with no known grave would have to be divided between several different sites. The site of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men who passed through it on their way to the battlefields. It commemorates casualties from the forces of Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and United Kingdom who died in the Salient. In the case of United Kingdom casualties, only those prior 16 August 1917 (with some exceptions). United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after that date are named on the memorial at Tyne Cot, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war.' (www.cwgc.org)
CWGC additional information: Son of Thomas and Elizabeth Castell, of 19, Glyn Avenue, Doncaster.
Additional research and information Peter Gillings. Additional material RF.
Photo of Albert Castell
Ypres Menin Gate memorial, Belgium, courtesy of the cwgc