Product Details

British War Medal 

57444 Pte Albert Lawrence 20th BN CEF

Missing presumed Killed in Action 15 Sept 1916 in attack of the SUGAR FACTORY Courcelette

Memorialized on the Vimy Memorial

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British War Medal (impressed 57444 Pte A. Lawrence 20-CAN INF)

Pte Albert Lawrence was born 6 April 1896 in Yorkshire, England. He attested with the 20th BN CEF in Toronto on 9 Nov 1914. He arrived in England on the SS Magnantic on 15 May 1915 and embarked for France on 10 Jan 1916. He was reported missing on 15 Sept 1916 presumed killed in action on 5 Mar 1917. According to the War Diary the 20th BN was in Albert in the Coucelette sector "Sugar Factory". The following entry is recorded for the day he was killed:

At 2am BN left Bde HQ and moved to the front linevia WALKER AVENUE CT. Owing to noise cuased by Heavy moto MG section getting into position enemy was on alert and put slow barrage on CTS and back country which cuased many casualties to troops in CT. At 3:10 am enemy attempted to bomb our front but was driven off At 5 am 20th BN were finally in position and waiting to attack. At 6:20 our artillery commenced and at 6:20 our BN advanced to attack in good order. By 6:35 am the first objective (German front line) was in our hands and mopping up was underway. At 6:36 am advance was continued by lifts of 100 yards as per our artillery programme. An intermediate German trench about 250 yards further from old GERMAN FRONT LINE was also carried. By 7 am the final objective on right of the SUGAR FACTORY. This advance was on a front of 250 yards and to a depth of 1000 yards. Our scout officer with a patrol of 5 men pushed on to SUNKEN ROAD about 500 yards past our objective and at 8:05 he reported this line lightly held. Orders were given for whole BN to push on to this line which they captured about 9:40 am. 50 prisoners and 2 officers were taken including a MG and two heavy and one light trench HOWITZER. Out bombers at once got to work bombing down trench to our left. It was not unitl noon that the BN on our left was able to come up and connect with our left flank. The half way trench established by our 5th wave had to be abandoned owing to intense shelling of same by enemy heavy artillery. The The garrison was taken forward to our line on right of the SUGAR FACTORY which was at our support line. It was noticed that about 9 am enemy artillery fire had considerably decreased and it is thought this was due to batteries being withdrawn. At 12 noon a slow barrage was placed behind our support line and more or less maintained during the day. The shelling of our newly won positions was not heavy. The enemy attempted a counter attack during the afternoon but was stopped dead by our MG fire. The 5th Bde had catured the village of COURCELETTE during the evening of the 15th.

Pte Lawrence is memorialzed on the Vimy memorial and entitled to a 1914-15 Star Trio.

GVF