Alfred was born in Stamford in 1896, in 1911 he was 15 and living at 4 St Leonard’s Street with his mother Emma Elizabeth (nee Berry ) Kent , his sister Annie Catherine (22) and a domestic servant, Clara Jane Perrins (24). His mother was born in Creeting St Mary, Suffolk. In 1911 she was working at home as a dressmaker and Alfred was still at school.

In 1901, the whole family was at home, already living at 4 St Leonard’s Street. Father was Alfred Kent , he was born in Burton on Trent , Staffordshire and we worked at home as a stone mason.  In the 1900 Kelly’s Directory he is described as a ‘monumental mason’. His mother’s birthplace is now recorded as Bottisford, Suffolk. They shared their home with a domestic servant and an apprentice dressmaker.

In 1916 Alfred John Kent was mobilised joining the navy as an Able Seaman and served aboard H.M.S ‘Sorceress’. (Recorded in ‘Stamford and the Great War’)