Died aged 25. 14 July 1893 – 14 Oct 1918.
Private R4/144444, Army Service Corps.
Alan was born on the 14th July 1893 in Knowl Hill, Hurley, Berks, Alan was the son of George Frederick Ladd and his wife Mary Anne (nee Down). His father George was a plumber.
By the time the 1901 census was taken on 31st March 1901, the family had moved to Dunster, and 7-year-old Alan was living in Water Street, Dunster with parents George (42) and Mary Anne (43) and brothers Lawrence S (18), Richard W (10), and twin Arthur (7). Lawrence was born in Dunster; the other three boys were all born in Hurley, Berkshire.
Ten years later, in 1911, Alan, aged 17, was still living in Water Street, Dunster with parents George (52, a plumber and gas fitter) and Mary Anne (53, a certified midwife) and brothers George Fredrick (24, an engine driver tractor), Richard William (20, a grocer), and (twin?) Arthur (17 an apprentice baker). Alan’s 8-year-old nephew Maurice Cyril Ladd (8, born Dunster) completed the household. According to this census, Alan and his siblings were all born in Knowl Hill, Berkshire.
Alan was living in Park St Dunster and working as a tailor when he enlisted in Minehead on 9 November 1915. He was assigned to the Army Service Corps Army Service Corps (Remounts Service), Private R4/144444. He was aged 22 years and 3½ months, was 5’ 5” tall, and weighed 130lbs. Between 1914 and 1918 Britain’s war effort was dependent on its horses for transport, pulling artillery, and in battle. The Remount Depot was responsible for the purchase and training of horses and mules for the British Army.
Alan married Ada Westlake on 16 Apr 1916 at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Somerton, Langport, Somerset.
After his marriage, Alan’s service record replaces his father with his wife Alma as his next of kin and gives an address for her as Saxonhurst, Hamble, Hampshire. There is a reference in his service record to the Remount Depot in Swaythling, Hampshire, which was constructed at North Stoneham in Hampshire to supply horses and mules for war service. Swaythling was the largest of the four main remount depots in England, and processed some 400,000 animals. 25,000 servicemen also passed through the Depot before its closure in 1920 (Swaythling Remount Depot website).
Alan was admitted to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, Hampshire on the 8th of October 1918.
Hampshire Archives & Local Studies has published extracts from the diary of Victor Shawyer who recalls his time spent at Netley Hospital in WW1, giving a personal insight into his time at Netley Hospital in the latter months of WW1, when Alan would have been a patient there:
“On arrival at the hospital I saw splendid team work, and organisation so efficient that it could only have been perfected from long and bitter experience. There was no fuss, no bother, everyone appeared to be in the right place at the right time.
“How can I hope to explain Netley as I saw it and experienced it after over three years of war? For some poor broken men it meant a new lease of life and for others a living hell of torture and suffering only to lose the battle for life in the end. Amputations and double amputations were so common as to cause little comment.
“But there was one aspect of life in Netley Hospital which did not go down so well with many patients. This was discipline, which was so stern and strict as to bring it very close to the level of the parade ground. As a soldier with nearly seven years service in a strictly disciplined regiment, as I was at that time, I am all in favour of a high standard of control among men; but in Netley some people’s notions of discipline and the enforcement of it was out of all rhyme or reason.
“I almost regret to have to add that in enforcing these rules, the Matrons were among the most determined disciplinarians. They one and all seemed to delight in walking around looking for trouble, and if one looks for trouble then as sure as hell it can be found.
“Thank heavens many of the sisters and all of the nurses managed to maintain their feminine sympathetic attitude towards us and remained women instead of becoming martinets, otherwise Netley Hospital in the year of our Lord, 1917-18 would have been a right good place to stay away from, and in saying that I have not lost sight of the fact that I was patched up good and proper by experts, and turned out as good as new when I eventually left there. But oh how I have wished that I could have received this expert treatment in another hospital somewhere in England, far from Netley.”
Netley Hospital in 1918 
British Red Cross Hospital, Netley
Alan’s stay in Netley Hospital was to be brief; “illness commenced 8 Oct 1918 with generalised weakness & shivering, sore throat, cough & vomiting. Grad. Increasing weakness, pain in left side of chest & slight nose bleeding. Sent here 11 Oct 1918. Right lower lobe affected on admission showing signs of lobal type inflammation. He soon developed a dusky appearance and pneumonia process spread on right side and terminally to the left side. He never showed any evidence of reaction and was hopeless as to the prognosis. Cyanosis developed and patient died early morning 14 Oct 1918.”
Tragically Alan never met his son, Philip Alan Ladd, was born in 1919 after his death.
Alan is buried in Long Sutton Friends Burial Ground. Commemorated on the plaques in St George’s Church & Memorial Hall in Dunster.
Long Sutton Friends Burial Ground
In addition to the plaques in St George’s Church and on Dunster Memorial Hall, Alan Ladd is also commemorated on the Long Sutton and Taunton St Mary war memorials. His parents are buried in Dunster Cemetery.
