Alfred Drake was born in 1867 in Kelvedon Hatch, Essex, the second son of Elijah Drake and Elizabeth (formerly Beadle) of Navestock, Essex (a member of an extensive Navestock Drake family). In the 1911 census he was an unmarried farm labourer and Army pensioner aged 44 living with his widowed father in Navestock (also a farm labourer and aged 80 in 1911).

Alfred was a Lance Corporal in the 11th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers when he died on 14 Aug 1916 aged 49 (the oldest Drake to die serving in this war).

His memorial is at Ration Farm Military Cemetery, La Chapelle-Darmentieres (Reference II D 6).

Email me at drake@one-name.org for more information.