1900s-1945
Albert George Janman was born at Pagham, near Bognor in Sussex, the son of T. V. Janman, who earned his living as a gardener. The family home was the Manor House at Aldwick, Bognor, and it was perhaps natural that Albert should follow his father into horticultural work. By the time war came, gardening had taken him far from his native county: he was employed at Knotley Hall, the residence of Lady Harriet Warde, and at the time he enlisted he was working in the gardens at Penshurst Place.
Albert settled into village life on the Kent and Sussex border. In 1915 he lodged with Mrs Page at Chiddingstone Causeway, and his name appears on the Electoral Roll for that year. He was also a member of the Leicester Lodge of Oddfellows in Penshurst, one of the friendly societies that bound together so many working men of the district. He never married.
In 1914 he joined the 7th Battalion of the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, enlisting at Tonbridge, and was posted to 'C' Company with the service number G/1522. He rose to the rank of Lance Corporal. During his service with the battalion he distinguished himself in the defence of the trenches, when German bombing attacks on 'C' Company were repulsed; he showed courage in the course of both assaults.
His luck did not hold. On 27 September 1916, during the fighting on the Somme, Albert was badly wounded in the left side. Serjeant Munro did what he could, helping the wounded man towards a dugout, but as they moved Albert was struck again, this time in the arm and the leg. Lieut. Hogg afterwards reported that Janman had been seen dead or dying. He was 29 years old. In all, eighteen other men of his company died alongside him that day.
News of his death reached home when The Courier carried the report on 1 December 1916. For his war service he was awarded two campaign medals. Having no known grave, he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, which stands among the Somme battlefields and bears the names of the missing of that terrible campaign.
Albert Janman is remembered in the communities that knew him, and beyond them. His name appears on the Leigh War Memorial and on the memorial at Chiddingstone Causeway, close to the cottage where he lodged. It is also recorded on the Edenbridge Hospital War Memorial, and on the memorial in his birthplace of Pagham, where his mother was then living. Four communities, in Sussex and Kent alike, chose to honour a gardener's son who gave his life on the Somme.