Private Alfred Adcock was the son of Harry and Anna Adcock of 50 Braunston Road, Oakham and the brother of Richard who also died in the First World War. He was born at Leicester on 24 March 1896 and worked as a gardener. He joined the Territorial Force on the 30 April 1913, and was mobilised on the outbreak of war in the 1/5th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment and went out to France on the 28 February 1915. He later fought with the Machine Gun Corps. He took part in the Battle of Loos at the Hohenzollern Redoubt on 18 October that year, in the Battle of the Somme in July 1916, and other battles, and was killed by artillery fire at Lens on the 1 July 1917. The war diary of the 138th Machine Gun Company records how two guns were attached to the 5th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment as it took part in an attack by 46th Division west of Lens. "Just after Zero a heavy [enemy] barrage was put down on the two guns...burying one gun and part of the team. All attempts to dig the men out were unsuccessful." Alfred was buried at Lens but his grave was never found after the war and he is remembered on Bay 10 of the Arras Memorial. His Sergeant wrote: "He died a soldier's death. He volunteered for the post where it happened, which was one of extreme danger. Always ready for work, never mind what the job was. He was a man it will be very hard to replace." Both brothers are remembered on Oakham's war memorial in the grounds of All Saints' Church, but also on a brass plaque inside the Baptist Church along the High Street in Oakham. Alfred is also remembered on the war memorial at Ashwell.