Albert Charles Thompson was born on 10 June 1909 the third of the nine children of Thomas Charles Thompson (1884-1942) and St. Helena Thompson née Shears (1888-1938). His birth was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1909 in the Greenwich registration district, London. He was baptised on 27 June 1909 in St Paul's Church, Mary Ann Gardens, London SE8 3DP, where the baptismal register shows his family residing at 53 Alvar Street, Deptford, London and that his father was a sawyer.
When his father completed the 1911 census return form he was shown as Albert Thompson, aged 2 years and living in four rooms at 53 Alvar Street, Deptford with his parents and three siblings: Phoebe Elizabeth Thompson (1906-1973); Thomas George William Thompson (1908-1970) and John William Thompson (1910-1972). His father described himself as a carman.
He had five other siblings: St. Helena Thompson (1912-1985); Henry William Thompson (1914-1915); Reginald Noel Thompson (1916-1918): Jessie Violet Thompson (b.1920) and David Henry Thompson (1923-1986).
In the 1939 England and Wales register he is shown as married and a general labourer living at 61 Reginald Road, Deptford, with his widowered father who was a carpenter's labourer and three siblings: Phoebe Elizabeth Thompson who was a domestic worker; Jessie Violet Thompson who was a shop assistant and David Henry Thompson who was an office clerk.
He was a Warden in the Air Raid Precautions service and was injured at Deptford Church Street, Deptford, as a result of an enemy air raid on 9 December 1940 and died, aged 31 years, later the same day at St John's Hospital, Morden Hill, Lewisham, London, SE13. He was buried on 16 December 1940 in Section A, Grave 1785, in Brockley & Ladywell Cemetery, 113 Brockley Grove, London, SE4 1DZ.
He is shown as Thompson, A. C. on the Royal Victoria Yard war memorial at The Colonnade, Grove Street, London, SE8 and as Thompson, Albert on the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour 1939-1945 located just outside the entrance to St George's Chapel at the west end of Westminster Abbey. He is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website and on the Lewisham War Memorials website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
