3rd Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Private Mustow appears to have been a young recruit, who died whilst in training.
Albert Henry (Harry) Mustow was born in Hatherop in 1896 and was baptised in the local parish church on 28 March 1897.
He was the son of George Mustow(1854-1919), a boot and shoemaker, who, at the time of the 1901 Census also acted as the village sub-postmaster and his wife, Emma (née Padfield; 1858-1950).
The couple had married in 1882 and had five children and they lived at Number 35 Hatherop from at least 1901 to beyond the Great War.
In the absence of any Army Service Record, very little specific information is known about Albert’s military service. It is possible that he attested under Lord Derby’s Scheme (the bridge between voluntary enlistment and conscription) towards the end of 1915, when he would have been 19.
He would have commenced a period of about six months training before being sent overseas and this was undertaken with the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment, who had been based at Gravesend since May 1915.
At sometime during training he either fell ill or sustained injuries in an accident although sight of a death certificate would confirm the exact cause. He died at Gravesend Military Hospital aged 19 on 5 March 1916.
His entry in the Register of Soldiers’ Effects notes that a gratuity was not payable, which indicates that his term of home service in the Army was less than six months.
Private Albert Henry Mustow was buried in the churchyard of St Nicholas, Hatherop on 10 March 1916.
His family placed a stone cross over his grave. He is commemorated on the village war memorial.
Researched by Graham Adams 23 September 2020