In Terlincthun British Cemetery, Wimille, France is the Commonwealth War Grave of 472262 Corporal Albert Cairns, serving with the 46th Battalion Canadian Infantry who died 10/09/1918.
The son of Geo. Henry and Elizabeth Doris Cairns, of 832, Ave. G. North, Saskatoon. Sask., Canada.
Jean Longstaff with information from Jim Busby in Canada has submitted:-
Born in Ashington, Northumberland on 28th January 1895, Albert Cairns was the second of the twelve children of coal miner George Henry and his wife Elizabeth Dores (nee Donkin) Cairns. Henry, the oldest, was born in 1894 and the youngest Thomas Cyril in 1910, in between came Hugh, Norman, Lawrence Wilfred, Ruby, Winifred, Edward, Duncan, George Leslie and Eve Rebecca all born in Ashington. Like his older brother Hugh, Albert attended Bothal School and then followed in his father’s footsteps and found work at the local pit, whilst his closest three brothers were a butcher, a baker and a grocer.
In April 1911 the family were at home in Ashington when the census was taken, a month later they were all crossing the Atlantic on board the SS Laurentic making for a new life in Canada, and the Canadian census taken in June shows them living in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Albert found work as a grocer, he and his brother Hugh became known for their soccer skills, as well as finding time to join a local militia group the 105th Saskatoon Fusiliers.
On 11th August 1915 both Albert and Hugh enlisted with the 65tth (Saskatchewan) Battalion and appointed to “A Company Albert became Private 472262, and was immediately granted two months harvest leave. Hospitalised with measles in March 1916, three months later the Battalion sailed to Liverpool in SS Empress of Britain and a posting to camp at Bramshott, Hampshire where two days later they were absorbed into the 46th (South Saskatchewan) Battalion.
The 46th went over to France in August as part of the 10th Infantry Brigade, 4th Canadian Division, sailing from Southampton to Le Havre aboard SS Princess Clementine, and just three days later on 14th August were in the trenches for the first time near Reninghelst in Belgium. Shortly after Private Cairns was trained as a Lewis Gunner before moving with his Battalion in October from Flanders to the Somme, where he would have taken part in the final battles of the Somme Campaign before moving on to join the rest of the Canadian Corps near Vimy Ridge.
Albert’s service file shows that he may have been slightly wounded at Vimy Ridge. The report was later cancelled, and there are no other details, except that he was sent for a spell at an army rest camp. Rejoining the Battalion at Chateau de la Haie in June he was promoted to Lance Corporal then Corporal.
On 26th October 1917 during an attack south of Passchendaele, he was hit by shrapnel and his right forearm was fractured. Corporal Cairns was invalided back to England where he spent three months in hospital in Oxford, followed by convalescence at Epsom, not rejoining the battalion until August 1918. Barely two weeks later during fighting on 2nd September he was shot in the head by an enemy machine gun bullet. He was evacuated to a field ambulance and subsequently to No.83 General Hospital in Boulogne, where he died from his wounds eight days later.
Margaret Allison states that his address in 1911 was 48 Third Row, Ashington.
Albert Cairns is remembered in Ashington on A17.01 (A17.27), A17.06 and A17.43
In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance and on the Footballers’ Memorial in Saskatoon that bears his brother Hugh’s name.
