Watsonville folks remembered Al as a "light hearted companion and one always ready to accept a dare, or laugh at a jest."

Albert G. Perkins was born in Ohio about 1886. Prior to 1909, he had arrived in California where he met and married Corrie. By 1910 the couple had settled in Butte Township in Siskiyou County where Perkins was employed in a lumber mill. Shortly thereafter the family moved to Watsonville where the Hihn-Hammond Lumber Company employed him. In 1913 Albert, along with his wife and daughter Frances, moved to Santa Clara County to be closer to other Perkins family members. The following year a second daughter, Hazel, was born into the family.

Albert Perkins qualified for a draft deferment; however, he chose to enlist in the army. California Adjutant General records indicate that at the time of his enlistment he was residing in San Francisco. Perkins was assigned to Company D, 12th Machine Gun Battalion, 8th Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division and trained at an unspecified training facility. The division moved to Camp Mills, New York, on April 21, 1918, and throughout May transported its units to Brest in northwestern France.

After a two to three month training period in France, Perkins was committed to the front. The 1918 unit history noted that during July Company D had moved into the area of Reims to stop the last major German offensive of the war at the Second Battle of the Marne.

On July 19, 1918, Private First Class Albert G. Perkins was killed in action and was buried in the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France.

(CAG; USCR, 1910; US Census, CA, Siskiyou; ABMC; WIKI, 2nd Battle of the Marne; WRP August 29, 1918 5:2)