The Southend Standard and Essex Weekly Advertiser dated 2nd December 1915(?) had an article titled 'Men with the Colours' which listed Alfred as living at 203 North Road, Prittlewell.

The Southend Standard and Essex Weekly Advertiser dated 19th October 1916 carries his obituary and confirms some of the dates above and identifies his birthplace.  It also mentions his brother (my grandfather) Leonard Victor Waterman who was serving in the Royal Navy and who, despite being torpedoed, survived the war.

We have never been able to trace Alfred's WW1 War/Campaign Medals although I have my grand-father's medals (his brother's) or the bronze war memorial disc/plaque that would have been sent to his family/widow after the war; as she married again, I have always hoped that someone somewhere in Southend has them in their loft but I accept it is likely/possible/probable that they were perhaps sold or even thrown out - as indeed so many were after the war.

I understand that Alfred's widow Nellie (who was only in her early 20's when he died) remarried after the war in 1919 to a man called Lazell, I recall my father speaking about a/the Lazell family who were family friends during his childhood and indeed one of his childhood/teenage friends was called Edward/Ted (?) Layzell and I suspect there are still Layzells in Southend as indeed there are (just) a few Watermans.

Research has suggested that as a Gunner in the Artillery, his gun unit would have been placed some distance back from the front line trenches - the wire - and the British Artillery would fire from behind (over the heads) of the allied troops into the enemy trenches beyond, and the enemy would take similar positions on their side of the trenches and return fire. From this positioning I believe it is unlikely that he would have been injured by an enemy bullet, and I feel it is more likely that his gun emplacement would have suffered a hit from an enemy shell, he would have been injured (not killed outright) and evacuated to a dressing station where he later died of his wounds.

Before being adopted as a War Cemetery (after the war) in September 1916, Dartmoor Cemetery was the site of the 15th Corps Main Dressing Station and it was usual for the dead to be hastily buried at the back of the field hospital/dressing stations where they died and these sites were later adopted as War Cemeteries so it ties in with my theory that he was injured in the battlefield and taken away for treatment, died at the dressing station and was buried at/near the facility.

Alfred was married to Nellie Sheppard on 26th June 1915, and at that time they were living at 207 North Road. The marriage certificate shows his occupation as Gunner RFA.
His Commonwealth War Graves Commission Commemorative citation gives details of the war grave (Dartmoor II A 83) and tells us that he was the Husband on N. Waterman of 214 West Road Prittlewell.

Along with thousands of others, Alfred's Military Service Records were destroyed in an air raid during the Second World War.