Sapper Alfred Parkinson Allen is listed in Rutland and the Great War with the surname Fowler, the name his mother took when she remarried and was living in Shacklewell Cottages, Empingham, hence the photograph caption above. But the Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists him as Allen. He was born at Thorpe Satchville on 29 November 1895. A wheelwright by trade, he enlisted in The Royal Engineers in 1916. After training at Chatham he went out to France with 87th Field Company on 2 October that year. He took part in fighting on the Somme and at Arras and elsewhere and was killed by a shell on 8 May 1917 at Monchy, while lying in a trench waiting to go up to the front line. He was buried at Feuchy, and a wooden cross was erected by his fellow sappers, now Feuchy British Cemetery, grave II.B.11. Before joining up he was well-known in connection with the Wesleyan Church. The Major of his company wrote: "He was an excellent soldier and I had particularly noticed his intelligence and keeness. Such men are more than ever wanted. He was doing his duty nobly." Alfred is remembered on Empingham's war memorial.