DEATH OF P.C. ALEXANDER
FUNERAL AT NEWBURY
His many friends in the Newbury District will learn of the death of Police Constable Albert Alexander, which occurred on Saturday in a hospital at Oxford. P.C. Alexander, who was only 44 years of age, had been ill for the past few months following special duty in a “blitzed” town. He was stationed for a number of years at Hungerford, Newbury and Brimpton, being transferred four years ago to Wootton in the Abingdon Division, where he was stationed at the time of his death. He had twenty years service in the Berkshire Constabulary and was a most popular officer.. P.C. Alexander leaves a widow and two children, with whom the utmost sympathy is felt.

Police officers from all parts of the County attended the funeral, which took place yesterday (Wednesday) at the Newtown-road Cemetery, Newbury, where a service was conducted by the Rev. A.A.H. Radice.

The family mourners were: the widow, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander (brother and sister-in-law), Mr. And Mrs. G. Annetts (sister and brother-in-law), Mrs. E. Annetts (sister), Mr and Mrs Daws (sister and brother-in-law), Mrs. Lucas, Mrs. Hughes sisters-in-law, Mr. Deacon (brother-in-law), Mrs Crawshaw, Miss Crawshaw, Mr. Bowley.

There were also present: Supt Crombie, Reading (representing the Chief Constable), Supt Barrett (Abingdon) Supt. Lambourn (Newbury), Inspector Bennett (Newbury), Inspector Burbidge (Faringdon), Inspector East (Wokingham), Inspector Hayter (Abingdon), Inspector Haskins (Maidenhead), Inspector Lidsey (Didcot), Sixteen police sergeants and 54 constables attended in addition to Section Officer Hough and three special constables from Cumnor.

Wreaths were sent from his wife and children; Sheila and Brian; Daisy, Gwen and Jack; Gran; Nin, Whoop and Humphrey; Sid Kit and Monica; Neil, Mabel, Joe, Dorrie and Harry; Peggy and Fred; Eve and George (Shinfield), and Ted and Neil (Burghfield); Phil, Daisy and family;All at Homer Cottage; Four Neighbours; Friends at “The Bystander”; Mr. Trinder, Edith and Margery; Mr. and Mrs. Sayer and Ken; Mr. and Mrs. Binning and family; Inspector and Mrs Huckins;Mr. And Mrs. G. Tomkins; Mr. and Mrs. Moreton and John; Mr. and Mrs Meadows and family; Mr. and Mrs. Buzzard and family;Mr. And Mrs. Rowse and family; Mr. and Mrs. G.S. Gooden; Mr. and Mrs. Wing, Cumnor Post Office,Mr. And Mrs. Brewer and family; Children and teachers of Dry Sanden School; Home Guards of Wootton-road; White Hill Dairy; Air Raid Wardens, Lower Wootton; Chief Constable, Officers and Constables of the Berkshire Constabulary; Officers and Constables of the Newbury Division; Cumnor Police and Special Constables; Comrades of the Abingdon Division; Officers and Constables of the Maidenhead Division; Officers and Constables of the Wokingham Division.

NOTE:

WELLCOME GALLERY, SCIENCE MUSEUM

You may be aware that toward the end of last year, we were contacted by the London Science Museum about Albert Alexander (the first person in the UK to receive experimental penicillin treatment) who is buried in the cemetery.  They were planning a large display on medicines and had seen our material on Albert and wanted to use some of it in a special display on penicillin as part of the exhibition.  We agreed and liaised with Albert’s family for the use of the photographs that we have on site by kind permission.

I am pleased to say that the exhibition is now open in the “Wellcome Gallery” and I have recently been to see it.  Albert’s is a small part of the display, but he played a major role in the development of penicillin and we are proud to have played our part helping to create this interesting exhibition. Admission to the Science Museum is still free if you are up that way.

 Shows Albert and his family living at

17 Cumnor Road, Abingdon.

See photos of entry below

Grave of the Month - Albert Alexander

The grave of the month for July just has to be Albert Alexander!

Constable Albert Alexander had been posted to Southampton in 1941 to assist the local police after a period of bombing.  The police station took a direct hit, killing a sergeant and injuring two constables, one of whom was Albert.

After treatment he was transferred to Abingdon Cottage Hospital where he developed blood poisoning. He was moved to the Radcliffe Infirmary Oxford for treatment. It was agreed that he would be injected with the drug penicillin. His condition improved as a result of the drug, but after 5 days the supply ran out and a month later, he died on the 15^th  March 1941 and was buried in NRC on the 19^th March 1941.

Newtown Road Cemetery received a visit on the 29^{th of} June from his daughter Sheila LeBlanc and his granddaughters Linda Willison and Karen LeBlanc who had all flown from California specially for this event, to view the blue plaque in Carnarvon Place to Albert’s memory and to attend as guests the World Congress of Pharmacology in Glasgow.

The Mayor and Mayoress, Nigel Foot and Sarah Slack, Thames Valley Police A/Chief Inspector, Andrew Hunt and Professor Mike Barrett from Glasgow University attended together with Dave Stubbs and various Friends of the cemetery.   The event was covered by the BBC, NWN and several other photographers. 

Sheila LeBlanc, who was 8, when her father died in 1941, laid flowers on her father’s grave. 

Brian Sylvester presented Sheila with a miniature set of her father’s war medals.

Karen LeBlanc, Linda Willison and Sheila LeBlanc at Albert Alexanders graveside.  Left to right.

Here’s the true story of penicillin’s first patient

By Bill Sullivan

April 17, 2022 

Albert Alexander was dying. World War II was raging, and this police officer of the county of Oxford, England, had developed a severe case of sepsis after a cut on his face became badly infected. His blood was now teeming with deadly bacteria.

According to his physician, Charles Fletcher, Alexander was in tremendous pain, “desperately and pathetically ill.” The bacterial infection was eating him alive: He’d already lost one eye and had oozing abscesses all over his face and in his lungs.

Courtesy of Linda Willason, CC BY-ND

Albert Alexander in uniform.

Since all known treatment options were exhausted and death appeared imminent, Fletcher decided that Alexander was the perfect candidate to try a new, experimental therapy. On Feb. 12, 1941, Alexander became the first known person to be treated with penicillin. Within days he began to make a stunning recovery.

I am a professor of pharmacology, and Alexander’s story is the prelude to my yearly lecture on antibiotics. Like many other microbiology instructors, I’d always told students that Alexander’s septicemia arose after he scratched his cheek on a thorn while pruning rosebushes. This popular account dominates the scientific literature as well as recent articles and books.

The problem is, while descriptions of the miraculous effect of penicillin in this case are accurate, the details of Alexander’s injury were muddled, likely by wartime propaganda.