Genealogical war memorials for Bournemouth’s fallen.
Mons: August 24th, 1914
Introduction
Tales from the Front (1) recounts the life of Albert James Habgood, a native of Victorian Bournemouth, who served in World War I. Lance-Corporal Habgood, a member of the First Battalion, Dorset Regiment, lost his life at age 29 during the retreat from Mons.
Tales from the Front (1): Part 1
Landscape from hell
To Lance-Corporal Albert James Habgood’s grey eyes, the landscape south of Mons perhaps represented a version of hell. Slagheaps. Factories. Railway works. Enclosed gardens. Narrow, cobbled streets. A wasteland of nightmares. An experienced soldier, he knew that the 1st Dorsets had little training in street fighting. After the declaration of war earlier that month, everything had gone with a rush. Shipping to the Belfast barracks, then down to Le Havre, followed by train journeys and the inevitable marching. Up to Mons, Belgium, in time to confront the German right flank aiming to engulf Paris. On the previous day, August 23rd, the British Expeditionary Force had gone to war. 15 rounds a minute pumped out of Lee Enfield .303 rifles, sounding like machine-gun fire, shocked the Germans. The BEF did well, but they needed many more men. At 0200, August 24th, a Monday, Habgood and the Dorsets answered the call to begin their army’s general retirement. They’d seen little fighting the previous day, but now they would get their share. And more.
Tales from the Front (1): Part 2
A rural background
Back home, in late August, Habgood’s ancestors would have anticipated the upcoming harvest. His roots went back far into rural Dorset. Nomads rotating through the villages north of Wimborne, scenting out work in the fields and farms. Long days, hard work, meeting acquaintances from the surrounding villages, maybe a chance to talk to the new girl that nobody knew. His father, a bricklayer, had brought the family to Bournemouth, a town always under construction. But a year after his birth, Habgood’s mother died. His father drifted away, marrying another wife in London. Habgood grew up in his uncle’s house, a gardener in Boscombe. For them, Bournemouth in August meant a town bustling with holiday visitors.
A successful man
To Habgood, the army may have represented an alternate family. He had enlisted with the Dorsets in 1901, still a teenager. After his period of service, he went on to the reserve and began a new life. Along the way, he had learned carpentry. He must have had skill because he could afford to get married. Like his father, he married the daughter of a tranter, a rural travelling salesman who sold from his cart. His family increased. By 1911, they had moved to Upper Parkstone, the opposite side of town from Boscombe. Careful and farsighted, while still on the reserve, Habgood paid the Liverpool and Victoria in 1913 to insure his life. Perhaps he caught a glimpse of the future.
Tales from the Front (1): Part 3
The sad day
At dawn on the 24th, the Dorsets could see groups of Germans scaling the slag heaps. They directed heavy machine-gun fire at the British. The Dorsets had deployed in scattered posts: small hills, cottages, the railway bridge. Artillery shells fell. They burst with an ear-splitting crash, throwing up clouds of earth. Casualties occurred. Officers fell, some taken prisoner. One attempted to take on a column with his pistol. The Dorsets edged near to disarray. Crowds of civilians, thronging the streets, made things even harder. Shelled from three directions, the battalion made its slow withdrawal from the Wasmes area, heading further south. They had had a long and bloody day. 69 men went missing, 49 received wounds, and 20 men died, a third of them NCOs.
Aftermath
According to the official records, Habgood, aged 29, featured among the fallen non-commissioned officers. His final resting place remains unknown, but the memorial at La Ferte-sous-Jouarre carries his name and rank. Ellen, his widow, must have learned her husband’s fate with little delay. By the 17th of September, the Liverpool & Victoria paid out on Habgood’s policy. She appears not to have remarried, depending on her widow’s pension, an exacting task with four children to support, one of whom her husband had never seen. As adults, the children continued in the building trade. Habgood’s family seems to have prospered.
From August 24th until September 5th, the 1st Dorset Battalion participated in the great withdrawal from Mons. The Allied forces fell back from Belgium into France. By early September, they had almost reached Paris. On the way, constant skirmishes and some larger actions occurred. Frustration abounded within the British Expeditionary Force. They had expected to march forward into Germany. Now, they fell back to Paris, avoiding serious action. All would change on September 5th. The Allies drew the line and went on the offensive, pushing the Germans back over the Marne and Aisne, where another Bournemouth son would fall.
Takeaway
Tales from the Front (1) has explored the life, world, and military service of Albert James Habgood, (1885-1914), a carpenter who fell with others of the 1st Dorsetshire Regiment during the retreat from Mons. This man, of a rural background and having encountered early misfortunes, acquired a skilled trade and established a family. In the Edwardian period, he had received professional military training during an earlier stint with the Dorsets. He had the foresight to protect his family by buying life insurance before the war began.
‘Tales from the Front’
A collection of personal stories honouring the Bournemouth natives who gave their lives on the battlefield and the regiments with which they served. Blending social and military history with genealogical insight, it explores their roots, families, occupations, and the ultimate sacrifices they made for their country.
Set against the backdrop of regimental war diaries and enriched by period media accounts, the series offers a powerful and intimate portrait of Bournemouth’s wartime heroes — a mosaic of personal courage within the broader sweep of history.
Serving as the second chapter and continuation of Victorian Bournemouth, Tales from the Front forms part of News from the Past: History for the Rest of Us.
References
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