Albert Joseph Kempster came to JerseyChannel Islands in the early 1890s. He was attached to the Northampton Regiment at the time. He married a Breton, Eleanor Grosvalet, in 1898, not long before being sent to South Africa, where war had broken out and from where he was later invalided home with enteric fever. In 1900, he was appointed to the permanent staff of the Royal Jersey Militia.[3]
They had twelve children: John, Cecil, Jim, Arthur, Robert, Phyllis, Doris, Charlotte, Louis, George, Joan, and Yvonne.
He possessed an exceedingly good voice singing opera and operetta. He was an amateur boxer, gymnast, and swordsman who boxed for the British army in front of the Prince of Wales and the German Kaiser. He was awarded for bravery with the Albert Medal when, at great risk to himself, he stopped a runaway horse and carriage.[dubious – discuss]
