Art student’s tales of war emerge from past Lost memoirs paint picture of life in trenches
STUART PIKE
AREDISCOVERED war memoir of an Accrington art student who fought and survived some of the First World War’s biggest battles has been published.
The 228-page autobiographical account of a 10-month period from July 1916, was written by Albert Clayton who fought in northern France and went “over the top” four times.
Possibly penned from memory in the inter-war years, it was unearthed last year in a cardboard box under a sink among a treasure trove handed down to his second cousin in a Clayton-le-Moors house.
Albert was born in 1895 at 12 Spencer Street, Accrington to William James Clayton and Nancy Alice Veevers and later trained at the Leeds College of Art and Royal College of
Art; the sculptor Henry Moore was a contemporary.
He joined the Royal Fusiliers in 1916 as an infantryman and fought with the 8th Battalion as a 21-yearold in France in the Battle of Arras before being eventually captured by the Germans in May 1917 after lying in a shell hole for several days with shrapnel embedded in his foot. Perhaps poignantly, the diaries end at the point of his imprisonment in a PoW camp.
He joined four major attacks – reporting the experience of being miraculously missed by machine gun bullets while friends around him died.
Albert’s memoirs – now published under a title taken from one of his passages – ‘Long Before Daybreak’, record in detail both the ordinary details of army life and the horror of what surrounded him.
Family member Micah Duckworth, said it was “an extraordinary moment” when they discovered the handwritten script at his mother Mary’s house on Whalley Road. Micah’s late father Dennis inherited many of Albert’s keepsakes as they had both lived in London and shared a strong connection as artists.
Micah said they had no idea of its existence.
He said: “What is remarkable is how he writes with such a matter-of-fact and observational style.
“Albert leads us with him through war-torn French villages and battlefield trenches; scenes full of graphic and sensory detail. He describes terrible things in very ordinary language. It may just be how that generation coped...”
The memoirs describe the escapades of his comrades with great affection and little trace of self-pity.
“He was very, very lucky and he talks about fate and chance,” said Micah.
“The last time he went over the top he tried to get back to the British lines but realised he was getting too weak. While he was lying there, a German soldier walked across and picked up his rifle. He just had to lie there and play dead, hoping this German wasn’t going to stick him with his bayonet. The only question mark was whether he intended to write any more; the story ends when he gets taken to a Prisoner of War camp. Our only real knowledge is he ended up in a prison camp and he was treated very badly.”
Micah, who lives in Bradford, said it was an exciting project over the New Year for him and his brother Gabriel to type up Albert’s script and then self-publish it on Amazon. The book includes some of Albert’s photos from the war.
He added: “Having read his story we can now understand their significance.
“The account is so accurate that we have been able to trace what happened to many of the soldiers who he named as having fought alongside him. Records show some died in the war, others like Albert survived, and it would be wonderful to make contact with any living relatives we can share this story with.”
Albert was de-mobbed from army service in 1919 (exactly 100 years before the manuscript’s discovery), and worked as an art teacher. He died in 1981, aged 95. His wife Greta, also a trained artist, passed away eight years later.
As well as Mary, Albert’s cousin Reg and his children Barry Clayton and Elaine Turner still live in Claytonle-Moors.