Ralph  Aldwinckle

Name	Ralph  Aldwinckle
Corps	King s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment 6th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light infantry 12th Labour Battalion & Loyal North Lancashire Regiment 10th Battalion
Rank	2nd Lieutenant
Service No.
Date/Place of entry	9 September 1914 London
Date of death	15 November 1916  Killed in Action
Memorial/Grave	Frankfurt Trench B C Beaumont-Hamel

Ralph Aldwinckle was born in Islington in1889, the third son and seventh child of silk merchant Alfred Othniel Aldwinckle and his wife Emma nee Nordsieck. For an account of this branch of the family see William Augustus Aldwinckle.

Ralph studied engineering at University College, London from where he obtained a BSc. degree in 1913. He was a keen runner and represented the university in competition. After graduating he continued his engineering studies at the Royal Gun Factory in Woolwich from where he volunteered when war broke out. He was straightaway gazetted as 2nd lieutenant but owing to an accident during service in England he was unable to leave for France until May 1916.  

He joined the Royal Lancaster regiment at the Front but was subsequently attached for a time to the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and then to the Loyal North Lancashire regiment. In April 1915 the North Lancashires had become part of the 112th Brigade in the 37th Division.

Ralph was reported wounded then missing while leading his platoon in an attack on Beaumont-Hamel on the Somme, a village about twenty four kilometres south west of Arras and ten kilometres north of Albert. His body was never identified.

He is commemorated in Frankfurt Trench British Cemetery. The cemetery is named from a German trench which remained in enemy hands until the German retreat early in 1917. There are now more than a hundred and fifty WW1 war casualties commemorated there of whom over one fifth are unidentified.

Ralph’s older brother Ernest Henry Aldwinckle was killed in October the following year.

For an account of the historic extended Aldwinckle family see John Bartholomew Aldwinckle. The following list gives the names of all known servicemen who were descended from Aldwinckles living Cottingham and Middleton in the nineteenth century.

(I also have information on a further five servicemen descended from the Aldwinckle family of Drayton in Leicestershire whose ancestors moved there from Cottingham in the eighteenth century. They are Ernest Aldwinckle, George Harry Aldwinckle, William Harold Aldwinckle, Herbert Aldwinckle and William James Aldwinckle. Please contact me <cottinghamsoldiers@gmail.com> if you would like to know more.)

Servicemen descended from Thomas Aldwinckle (1816-1899):
William Augustus Aldwinckle, Ralph Aldwinckle and Ernest Henry Aldwinckle.

Servicemen descended from Henry Aldwinckle (1770-1842):
John Bartholomew Aldwinckle, Charles Henry Aldwinckle, Arthur Edwin Aldwinckle, Frederick Wade Coles, Albert Edward Aldwinckle, Archibald Aldwinckle, Frank Aldwinckle, Harry Aldwinckle, William John Aldwinckle,  Harry Aldwinckle, George Robert Aldwinckle, Thomas Aldwinckle and Walter Aldwinckle.

Servicemen descended from William Aldwinckle (1807-1891):
Bartle Essex Aldwinckle, Charles Reginald Burdett, Alfred Norman Burdett and William Edward Burdett.

Servicemen descended from John Aldwinckle (1817-1884):
John Aldwinckle, Percy Aldwinckle, Henry Aldwinckle and Bernard Aldwinckle.