1889. Alan Percival Skett was born in Pixham, Dorking early in 1889

At 7th April, 1889 he was baptised in St John’s on  

In the 1891 census he was living at Bentsbrook Cottage, North Holmwood with his father Joseph Henry (a gardener) and mother, Mary Ann.

By 1901 the family were in a cottage near The Studio and Bhoems Cottage

He was a pupil at Powell Corderoy School, Dorking (then in Vincent Lane).

He joined the Militia with the 3rd Battalion Royal West Surrey Regiment on 18th September 1904 with number 3683, while working in Dorking as a shop assistant.

He gave his age as 18 years and 9 months and his parents were living in Little Egypt, North Holmwood. He then joined the Coldstream Guards as number 6055 on 25th January 1905, giving his age as 19, when he was actually just 16. He gave his denomination as Church of England and his occupation as stationer’s assistant. His father and two brothers were living in Sefton Villas (opposite the present fire station).

He spent 20 months in home service and then the remainder of his 3 years’ service with the colours in Egypt, before returning home and transferring to the reserve on 31st January 1908. (Unlike most other regiments Guards served three years with the colours and 9 on the reserve at this time.)

By July 1908 he was back in Dorking, working as a relief postman.

In 1911 he was working as a gardener living in the family cottage, with his two brothers, Ernest Edward, 29, a postman and Walter Harold, age 12. His father, now a retired head gardener, was living a few doors away in Sefton Villas with Mary and one daughter.

The Guards were preparing for war before the declaration. Along with many other reservists Alan was recalled on 6th August, equipped and sent to France, landing at Le Havre, with 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards, on 12th August 1914, only eight days after war was declared. He was wounded at Mons and taken prisoner in September.

He was in a group of 2,000 prisoners who were moved in May 1916 from camps in Germany itself to an area now in Latvia, but then part of Russia, occupied by the Germans. They were equally divided into four different camps.

In February 1917 they were moved to different retaliation camps with deliberately harsh conditions, poor accommodation, little food, no food parcels, severe cold weather and long hours of exhausting work in an area close to the Russian front. This was in retaliation for the treatment of German prisoners who were working near the front in France.

Alan died on 6th April 1917. He was at Pinue (Piņķi,  Pinne) and his death was reported in The Times in May 1918 as an example of the ill treatment of prisoners.

 Alan was initially buried nearby and later at Kliwenhof (Klīves) churchyard, Latvia, later reburried in Nikolay cemetery near Jelgava.

Fragments from research of Jim Edwards from North Holmwood, at 

https://www.dorkingmuseum.org.uk/private-alan-percival-skett/

***

KIA: Latvia

Born: 1889

Awards:

Rank: Private

Regiment: Coldstream Guards

Unit/ship/squadron: 3rd Bn.