Albert Frederick Dibden

Rifleman Albert Frederick Dibden (47510) of the 11th Battalion of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps died on 15 June 1918. (Source: UK Soldiers Died in the Great War (“UK Soldiers”). He is buried at Sucrerie Cemetery in Ablain-St- Nazaire.

According to UK Soldiers, he was born in Ditton, Surrey. He enlisted in Hounslow and gave his place of residence as Teddington.

Rifleman Dibden is confusingly referred to by a series of slightly differing sets of first names. His birth was registered at Kingston sometime between July and September 1899 some months after his parents’ marriage was registered there. On his birth certificate he was named Albert Edwin F Dibden. The Edwin does not appear either on his Medal Roll or his UK Soldiers entry which suggests that he tended to use just Albert as his Christian name.

By the time of the 1901 Census, he is referred to as merely Frederick Dibden. His father, Gilbert Dibden a twenty seven year old labourer had moved to Tolworth with his wife, the nineteen year old Rose; his mother-in-law, Emily Butler and his one year old son. The family appears to have moved at regular intervals. The entries on the 1911 Census reveal that Gilbert (now describing himself as a gardener) and Rose had produced five children with varying birth places: Frederick (Thames Ditton); May (Surbiton); Ernest (Long Ditton); Willie (Thames Ditton) and Leslie (Kingston).

Unusually, three of the Dibden children, including Albert Edwin Frederick, Cecilia May Rose and Herbert Leslie, were christened at the parish of St John, Kingston on April 13th 1910. At the time the family were living at 17 Mile (?Mill) Street Kingston. It’s not clear why Albert was christened at the unusually late age of eleven or why two of his siblings were not christened at the same time. Shortly afterwards Albert started his working life as a newsboy for a newsagents which was his occupation given in his 1911 Census entry.