SERJEANT ALBERT MCKANNA-MAULKIN
GRENADIER GUARDS
25TH SEPTEMBER 1916 AGE 28
BURIED: SERRE ROAD CEMETERY NO. 2, SOMME, FRANCE
Most inscriptions of this type just say 'Ever remembered by all at home'; I like the way all those who remembered Albert McKanna-Maulkin have been identified, even though not actually named. McKanna-Maulkin's wife was called Nellie, his mother, Grace, his father, Frederick, his sister, another Grace and his five brothers Richard, Harry, George, Arthur and William. The only person whose name I have not been able to discover is his daughter's.
McKanna-Maulkin had been a professional soldier. The 1911 census shows him, a private in the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards, in Blenheim Barracks, Aldershot. His army number, 14417, indicating that he had enlisted some time in 1909-10. He must have subsequently left the army because he's commemorated on the Wisbech and Ely Constabulary war memorial in Wisbech police station. However, the war saw him rejoin the Grenadier Guards, probably as a reservist since he seems to have kept his original army number. He served with the 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards and was killed in action on 25 September 1916 when the Guards brigades took the village of Lesboeufs.
His body was not discovered until January 1928 - in an unmarked grave at map reference 57c. /n.32 d.o.3. In the intervening years, Nellie McKanna-Maulkin had married her brother-in-law, Harry (in 1919) and died (in 1921). It was Harry who chose his brother's inscription.