TOPIC:

Posted earlier by Neville in this fascinating thread:

Here is a similar example, carved by a POW for 4132 Private Alfred Steff, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. He was stationed at Diyatalawa from 22/12/1900 to 27/11/1902. Inscribed: "to Miss Florence Sinclair from Pte. Alf. Steff / Boer Camp". Again, the lettering retains much of its gold infill.



My humble contribution:

It seems reasonable to assume 4132 Private Alfred Steff had amorous intentions towards Miss Florence Sinclair when he commissioned a Boer PoW to create a paper knife with both their names carved on it. Did they eventually tie the knot? – apparently not:



That this is the marriage record of ex 4132 Private Alfred Steff is beyond doubt as his 1914 WW1 Attestation Papers give details of this 5 October 1908 marriage to Mary Andrews and the birth of a child named Alice in 1910.

Alfred had a difficult upbringing, served in the army for 23 years 86 days, accumulating six medals and being mentioned in despatches in 1919. He spent all of his post army life living in Battersea where he appears to have taken on another man’s responsibility. He died in Battersea aged 73 when bronchitis took a deadly grip on a body already weakened by diabetes.

Alfred was born in Chelsea on 25 August 1873, as his marriage record shows his father was a bricklayer named Daniel, I have not been able to identify the name of his mother. In late 1880 seven year old Alfred was admitted to the Chelsea Workhouse, the admission register gives “Father in hospital” as the reason for his admission and his religious denomination as “Roman Catholic”. The 3 April 1881 Census found him an “inmate” of St Mary’s Orphanage for Roman Catholic Pauper Boys situated in Hounslow. I think from this we can construe his mother had already died by late 1880 and his father died in late 1880/early 1881 and by the time of the 1881 Census Alfred was an orphan.

On 13 July 1893, aged 19 years and 10 months, Alfred enlisted in the army. Although he had previously been a member of the 2nd Volunteer Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers he was assigned to the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry (DCLI). The day after he attested he reported to their 10 year old Depot in Bodmin and spent the next three months there undergoing basic training. His attestation papers show he was 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed 8 stone 9 lbs and had previously earned his living as a “porter”. He gave his religious denomination as Roman Catholic and his elder brother, William living in Chelsea, as his next of kin. Further investigation has shown William was born in 1869, making him about 4 years older than Alfred.

On 17 October 1893 Alfred was assigned to the 2nd Battalion DCLI and posted to Dublin in Ireland. On 19 July 1894 he was promoted to Lance Corporal but reverted to Private when he was transferred to the 1st Battalion. With the 1st Battalion he was posted to India during January 1895 where he was to spend the next 6 years. When Alfred arrived the battalion were on garrison duty in Meerut moving on to Lucknow in 1896. During 1897 & 1898 the North-West Frontier campaign was fought in which the Battalion took part in the Tirah expedition, seeing active service in Tirah and the Bara Valley. This earned Alfred the India Medal with two clasps – Punjab Frontier 1897/98 & Tirah 1897/98.

After the North-West Frontier campaign they returned to garrison duty at Peshawar, Rawal Pindi, Lucknow, Calcutta and Dum-Dum. So during his six years in India Alfred saw quite a bit of the country but for 14 months his view was limited mainly to the inside of hospital ward. He had 13 separate spells in hospital for a range of maladies including a dislocated shoulder caused by an accident.

During December 1900 the battalion was posted to Ceylon to guard Boer Prisoners of War at Diyatalawa Camp where Alfred commissioned his Paper Knife carved out of wood.

On 21 October 1902, having completed 8½ years of active service he agreed to extend his active service to 12 years and was granted a “112 Day Furlough Gratuity Allowance” which I presume means he was paid a gratuity to cover the 122 days of leave he was due but had not taken.

During November 1902 the battalion was posted to Stellenbosch in South Africa. They moved to Middleburg during June 1903 and arrived at their final station of Wynberg on 21 May 1905. Whilst at Wynberg Alfred had his only spell in a South African hospital suffering from a tooth abscess which “spontaneously ruptured” during his 10 day stay in hospital.

During March 1906 the battalion set sail for England and for the first time in over 11 years Alfred stepped on the soil of England on 5 April 1906. On 13 July 1905, the twelfth anniversary of his enlisting, Alfred was granted his 3rd Good Conduct Badge. At some stage, not noted in his records, he was transferred to the Army Reserve, and he was fully discharged on 17 October 1911.

As already reported he married Mary Andrews at St John’s Church in Chelsea on 5 October 1908 - it would seem that Alfred had forsaken his Roman Catholic faith. The 1881 Census found Alfred & Mary living in 2 rooms at 8 Elcho Street, Battersea. Although Alfred was absent from home at the time of the Census the 2 rooms were still somewhat crowded. Besides Mary and their daughter Alice, Mary’s elder brother Henry, a plumber by trade, was living with them. As was Mary’s other daughter, 12 year old Ethel Steff. As Ethel was born in 1888 or 1889 there is no way Alfred could have been her biological father.

Now is perhaps a good time to backtrack to 1897 when Alfred’s elder brother died aged only 28. William had married a Florence Mulock in 1889 saving her from the same workhouse Alfred had been in and accepting her recently born illegitimate daughter, also called Florence, as his own and allowing her to take his name. When William died Alfred nominated his sister-in-law as his next of kin but Florence senior remarried in haste to a William Oxer who unlike the Steff brother’s was not willing to accept another man’s child and the 1901 Census found 12 year old Florence Steff residing in St John’s Children’s Home in Chelsea. This home was actually an “Industrial School”. Industrial Schools were set up to provide a home for neglected and abandoned children and to teach them a useful skill to help them make their way in life. The 1911 Census found Florence Steff working as a housemaid in Chelsea. Later she married and had a family of her own and was still going strong at the time of the 1939 Register.

Returning to Alfred, on 22 October 1914, two months after the start of the Great War, Alfred volunteered for service in the army and was assigned to the Middlesex Regiment with the regimental number 1687. His attestation papers show he was now 40 years and 2 months old, had grown half an inch in 21 years to 5 feet 5½ inches but had bulked out considerably to 11 stone 6 lbs (an increase of nearly 3 stones).

Initially Alfred was assigned to the 5th Battalion based in southern Britain but on 19 January 1915 he was transferred to the 4th Battalion and posted to the Western Front where he helped the battalion to reform following their decimation at the Battle of Mons. The 4th were to be decimated again during the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Four months after the start of the Battle of the Somme, Alfred was promoted to Lance-Corporal and temporarily transferred to the Military Foot Police (MFP). The MFP were responsible for enforcing discipline in the lines of communication which meant Alfred was no longer in the front line but still in danger from over-ranged enemy shells and also not too popular with his fellow soldiers. What was a temporary transfer seems to have become permanent and he was still with the MFP when the war ended. He was demobilised at Aldershot on 28 April 1919, by when he was 45 years old, and transferred to the Army Reserve. His mention in despatches was Gazetted on 10 July 1919 and he was fully discharged 1 October 1919. During 1919 he was awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.

The June 1921 Census found Alfred and extended family living at 12 Elcho Road, Battersea – at least they now had a little more room as the return shows No.12 was possessed of 4 rooms. Alfred was working as “Messenger” in the Inland Revenue Offices in Sloane St, Knightsbridge, Ethel was working as a “Waitress” in the Kings road, Chelsea, Alice was still at school, Henry (Alfred’s bother-in-law) was now employed as a “General Labourer” by a firm of builders based in Battersea.

The 1939 Register found Alfred & Mary still living at 12 Elcho Street, where they appeared to be providing a home for a widow about 10 years their senior. Alfred was employed as a “Watchman”.

Alfred died on 1 February 1947, just round the corner from Elcho Street at 23 Brynmaer Road, Battersea. On his death certificate his occupation was given as “Formerly a Boiler Stoker at Army Camp” and “Army Pensioner”. His cause of death as (a) Bronchitis, (b) Hypertension resulting from amputation of a leg due to gangrene four months earlier (this latter indicates he was almost certainly suffering from chronic diabetes). His daughter Alice was present at his death although by now she had become Mrs Lieto by marrying a British born son of Italian immigrants who had served in WW2 and survived.

Having written all this I feel like marching down to Elcho Street with a suitably worded blue plaque under my arm and locating where No.12 once stood. Alfred does have a memorial in the form of a Paper Knife but who was Miss Florence Sinclair? As he had not seen England for over 6 six years when the knife was created she is unlikely to have been a sweetheart back home. So, presumably she was part of the English community to be found in Ceylon at the time. Searching newspapers for “Florence Sinclair” at the time of the Boer War threw up an actress who from the photograph I found of her was about the right age and rather attractive – so was he smitten by an actress and if so did he send the knife to her?

By my reckoning Alfred’s medal count was 6 – India Medal with two clasps, a clasp-less Queen’s South Africa Medal, 1914-1915 British Star, British War Medal, Allied Victory Medal & a Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. I hope Alice and her offspring cherished them.