Ransom | Albert
Biography
Albert Ransom (Service No. 4350100) was killed on 12th October 1944. He was a Private in the 2nd Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment.
Privates J Coombs and GR Elliot, also of the East Yorkshire Regiment, died on the same day and JW Dawson died on the following day.
The 2nd Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment took part in the D- Day landings in June 1944 and lost many men as a consequence. A substantial number of reinforcements joined the Battalion in late July when it had returned across the Orne to Beuville, near Caen in France. It played a part in action to secure a road junction at Vire in mid August but played no further part in the Battle of Normandy. In September they were in Belgium and successfully crossed the Escaut canal as part of the ill-fated Market Garden operation, arriving in Gernert in Holland on 26th September where they received a tremendous welcome. October saw the 2nd Battalion involved in some of the heaviest fighting since the end of June, amid continual rain and mud. The battalion played its part in capturing Overloon on 12th to 15th October, suffering 49 casualties.
Albert was born in 1910 in Sheffield. He was the son of Walter and Annie Elizabeth Ransom. Walter had married Annie Elizabeth Wright in 1887 in Sheffield.
In 1911 they were living at 3 Corby Street, Sheffield. Walter was a Steel Casting Fettler. Sheffield was famous as a centre of steel making. Walter was born in 1864 and Annie Elizabeth in 1869. They had 5 children living with them. Tom was aged 21 and working as a Blacksmith at a Steel Works. Walter was 20 and a general labourer, but unemployed at the time. Their three younger children were Annie Elizabeth aged 16, John aged 14 (who was a wheelwright’s labourer) and Albert himself who was just 6 months old. A sixth child called Jane who was 12 was a patient in the Lodge Moor Fever Hospital in Eccleshall.
Albert’s father, Walter Ransom, died in 1915, aged 51 at Eccleshall. Albert would only have been 5 years old at the time.
In 1921 his mother Annie was living at 60, Corby Street, Sheffield. With her was her daughter Jane Ransom, aged 23 and shown as a Tile Cutter Machine Operator at Jones & Calvers at Attercliffe. So too was Albert, now aged 10 years and 9 months. They had a visitor by the name of John Grayson living with them at the time of the census. He was born in 1896 in Sheffield and working as a driller at the Farnley Iron Company in Leeds. Jane Ransom went on to marry him in 1922. Two boarders were living with them. One was William Hassal, a married man of 45 from Cannock Chase in Staffordshire who was a Miner Coal Getter at the Nunnery Colliery Company. The other was William Smedley, a 63 year old single man born in Sheffield who was a Blacksmith General at John Brown & Co, Saville Street, Sheffield.
In 1932 Albert married Evelyn Gunn in Sheffield. In September 1939 they were living at 340 Shirecliffe Road in Sheffield. Albert’s birth date was given as 14th September 1910 and he was described as a Steel Mill Helper at a Steel Works. Evelyn’s birth date was given as 11th October 1909. A record was closed indicating the presence of a child. Also noted was the name Williams next to Evelyn’s name indicating a subsequent marriage.
Albert and Evelyn had three children as follows: Kenneth in 1934 Ecclesall Bierlow District, Eric in 1936 and Alan in 1943 – the latter two both in Sheffield. Kenneth died in 1934 in infancy – thought to be from consumption.
It was probably Albert’s mother, Annie E Ransom, who died in 1943 in Sheffield aged 75.
Albert’s wife, Evelyn, received the telegram telling her that Albert was dead but only after hearing it first from one of his friends.
She did go on to marry Horace Williams in 1949 in Sheffield. They had one child, Stanley born in 1950 in Sheffield who died in 2001.
