Private Alfred George LANE (1876–1898)

Alfred George Lane was born at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire on 25 August 1876. His parents were John Evans Lane and Emily Rebecca Ward, who were married in the Wycombe district near the end of 1867. Alfred had three older siblings: Annie Eliza Lane (born 1869), Linda Emily Lane (born 1871), and John Aubrey Lane (born 1873).

The 1881 census shows Alfred (recorded as 5 but actually 4) living in High Wycombe with his father John (52), who was an unemployed mealman, his mother Emily (40), and his three older siblings.

His mother Emily Rebecca Lane died at High Wycombe near the end of 1882 at the age of 41, and his father died at there on 13 April 1885 at the age of 56, leaving a personal estate of to £510 7s. 5d.

Alfred was thus an orphan at the age of eight. In 1891 when he was 14 he was boarding at Stafford House School in Finchley, Middlesex.

He was already in the Militia (4th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment) when on 31 October 1894 at Dublin at the age of 18 years and 2 months he signed up with the Oxfordshire Light Infantry (regimental no. 4891). He stated that by trade he was a carpenter.

He served at home from 31 October 1894 to 23 December 1896, and then in India from 24 December 1896.

In 1897/8 he served as a Private in the 2nd Battalion of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry both on the Punjab Frontier with the Mohmand Field Force and at Tirah.

He died of enteric fever at Landi Kotal at the age of 24 on 9 May 1898 according to his military and probate records.

He was posthumously awarded the India Medal with two clasps.

His effects came to £389 15s. 8d., and his executor was his sister Miss Linda Emily Lane. His probate record gives his forenames in reverse order, and states that his address at the time of his death in India was Downley, West Wycombe.