Roll of Honour

Alfred John Bending Rundle was born in Plymouth in 1896 to John Rundle, a Scotsman from Ayr, and his wife Emily ,nee Bending, who was from Plymouth. Although he was born in Devon, Alfred was taken to West Hartlepool as a young child, and in 1901 was in Avenue Road with his mother, younger brother  Reginald and one year old sister Ivy who had been born in the town. Mother's sister Emily Bending was  also in the household at the time.

We learn from the 1911 census, when the Rundle family had increased to 7 children, that father John Rundle was a chief engineer  of steamships, which accounts for his absence in 1901. The family were at this point living in Kilwick Street and the youngest child was one year old John.

Emily Bending, Alfred's mother, had come to West Hartlepool from Devon with her parents Frederick and Mary who had also been born in Plymouth. In 1891 they were living in Eden Street and all but Emily's three month old sister, who was born in West Hartlepool,had been born in Plymouth. Her father Frederick was a captain in the Royal Navy.

In 1891, John Rundle was a boarder in Foster Terrace West Hartlepool and his occupation was given as a steam engine fitter.

John Rundle and (Mary) Emily Bending were married in Hartlepool in 1895.

Alfred John Bending Rundle married Eliza Lancaster  when he was only about 17 or 18 in  1916 and their daughter Kathleen was born in January 1916.

Alfred was serving as 4th engineer on SS Polesley en route from Cardiff to France when it was hit by a submarine a mile from the Pendeen lighthouse in Cornwall. Along with the whole crew of 43, he lost his life and his body is interred at Perranzabuloe, St Piran Churchyard in Cornwall.

His wife Eliza, then at 34 Tweed Street, was informed of her husband's death.