2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment
Died on Monday, 26th October 1914 aged 25
Personal Information:
Alfred Matthew Keirle was born in Brighton during 1889, and baptised on 17 May 1891 at St. Andrew’s Church, Willesden. the third son of George Matthew Keirle (1861-1928) and Elizabeth Ann Clisby (1863-1954) of 10 Windsor Street, Harrow Road, Paddington.
Alfred enlisted 14 December 1906 at Brighton, his occupation was listed as a shop assistant. In the 1911 census he is shown as abroad with the British Army in Bermuda and Jamaica. The second battalion was a pre-war ‘Regular’ battalion dating back to 1858 which was stationed in South Africa when war broke out. It served entirely on the Western Front from arrival on board the SS Winifredian at Zeebrugge on 7 September 1914, to the return home in April 1919. On 18 October 1914, around the 10km marker stone on the Ypres-Menin road, they met the German Army.
Memorial Information:
The Menin Gate was unveiled on 27 July 1927 and is possibly the best known of all the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s memorials. It weighs over 20,000 tonnes and carries 54,000 names of men who died in the Flanders area up to 15 August 1917, and who have no known grave.
Memorial:
Panels 31 and 33 Menin Gate Memorial, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.