Albert Switzer, M.M. Royal Field Artillery, was the only son of Albert (Coal Merchant) and Mary Jane Switzer, Primrose Street, Belfast. He was born in 1898 and volunteered, along with his friend Willie McBride, in September, 1914, expecting to serve together. Following their basic training Willie served the entire war in India, Albert spent it on the Western front. He was at the Battle of the Somme, where 57,000 of his colleagues became casualties on the first day. He was Mentioned in Dispatches and awarded the Military Medal for his actions on the battlefield. He first travelled to the Somme as a khaki-clad teenager, and returned half a century later as an aging ex-serviceman.