Son of William and Elizabeth Ogleby, of 10 Whitehall Terrace, Sunderland.
Linda Gowans has submitted the following:-
William Ogleby married Elizabeth Dixon in Sunderland in 1881. In 1901 the family is at 16 Wolseley Terrace; William is Manager of a Candle Works. By 1911 they are at 24 Pallion Road, with four daughters and four sons including Albert Victor, born 1894. He is a Horse Driver for a Candle Factory (presumably his father’s).
His Short Service Attestation was signed at Sunderland on November 10th 1914, describing him as Tallow Chandler, of 10 Whitehall Terrace, 5' 8" tall, aged 20 years and 4 months. He joined the East Yorkshire Regiment at Beverley, and on August 2nd 1915 was posted to France with the 7th (Service) Battalion.
His is a harrowing story, and not all due to enemy action. On August 31st 1915 he was sentenced to (‘awarded’, as the official record has it) 14 days’ Field Punishment No. 1. This was a humiliation used by the British Army, in which the soldier was attached standing full-length to a fixed object (a post or a gun wheel) for up to two hours a day. It could be imposed for insubordination, or for minor offences such as drunkenness. It was denounced in Press and Parliament at the time, and by writers including Robert Graves afterwards – but defended by senior figures including Sir Douglas Haig.
Private Ogleby appears to have become ill with rheumatism, but returned to duty on September 12th, only to receive a further 21 days’ sentence a month later. In November he was reported as suffering with trench feet, but two days later he was back in service.
In February 1916 the 7th Battalion was near Ypres, where on 14/15 February they were in action at The Bluff. There had been attack and counter-attack in the days leading up to the battle, and it seems probable that it was under these circumstances Albert Victor was wounded. On the 13th he was one of 124 admissions to 17 Casualty Clearing Station, where on March 3rd he died of pneumonia on a day that saw 376 further admissions.
The CWGC record states bleakly ‘died of pneumonia following wounds’, the conclusion of a disturbing sequence of events. In March 1920 his mother acknowledged receipt of his posthumously awarded 1914-15 Star. His father chose for the inscription on his gravestone: ‘Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.’
His brother John Dixon Ogleby was killed in June 1918.
Albert Victor Ogleby is remembered at Sunderland on S140.009, S140.010 and S140.048 part 4
