Alan Wynne Apperley (1885-1970)
From Durham City, served with Canadian Expeditionary Force & 18th Battalion DLI (Durham Pals).
Newton Wynne Apperley was private secretary to the Marquis of Londonderry, a magistrate and a JP. The family home from the mid-1870s was South End House, a villa on the south road out of Durham City, previously the Shepherd Inn and in the 21st century belonging to Durham University. His wife Mary (nee Hutchinson) bore him seven children in this house, of which only six, 3 sons and 3 daughters, survived infancy. All his sons entered the services, William the eldest was a Lieutenant in the Durham Light Infantry, Newton, the youngest was in the Royal Naval Reserve and Alan enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
Alan was born on 14th May 1885, and twenty years later he was sailing from Liverpool to Quebec on board the Tunisian; in the 1911 Canadian Census he had a room in a house in York, Ontario. Alan was an Acting Sergeant of the Dufferin Rifles, a branch of the Canadian Militia that did not go overseas, so on 19th March 1915 he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Montreal, where a note was made of the tattoo of his initials, AWA, on his left forearm. He became a member of the Canadian Engineers, where his occupation of draughtsman would be useful, and sailed for England on board the SS Herschel on 14th June, bound for a posting to Canadian Overseas Railway Construction Corps at Longmuir.
This lasted for six months as on 20th December he was discharged in England to take up a Commission in the 21st Reserve Battalion DLI. He was later promoted to Lieutenant in 18 DLI and was discharged on 5th October 1917.
His first wife, whom he married in 1922, was Dora Mary Lawrence, an Acting Flight Officer in the WAAF, who died in 1985. In 1958 he married Elsie Potts in Durham and they lived in Sedgefield until Alan’s death in January 1970.
Civil Parish: Durham
Birth date: 14-May-1885
Death date: 1970
Armed force/civilian: Army
Family: Father: Newton Wynne Apperley
Brothers: William Apperley, Newton Apperley
3 sisters
First wife: Dora Mary Lawrence
Second wife: Elsie Potts
Gender: Male
Contributed by Jayell, Durham | Elaine Wynne Apperley
