Coordinates: 50°00′10″N 2°39′10″E / 50.0028°N 02.6528°E / 50.0028; 02.6528

Albert is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.

It is located about halfway between Amiens and Bapaume.

Albert was founded as a Roman outpost called Encre, in about 54 BC. It is remembered today as the site of the Battle of the Somme in World War I.

During World War I, the statue of Mary and the infant Jesus - designed by sculptor Albert Roze and dubbed the "Golden Virgin" - on top of the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Brebières was hit by a shell on January 15, 1915, and was put on a horizontal position and was near falling. The Germans said that whoever made the statue fall would lose the war, and a number of legends surrounding the "Leaning Virgin" developed among German, French, and British soldiers. The Leaning Virgin became an especially familiar image to the thousands of British soldiers who fought at the Battle of the Somme (1916), many of whom passed through Albert, which was situated three miles from the front lines.

Somme (French pronunciation: [sɔm]) is a department of France, located in the north of the country and named after the Somme river. It is part of the Picardy region of France.

The north central area of the Somme département was the site of a series of battles through the Great War. Particularly significant was the 1916 Battle of the Somme. As a result of this and other battles fought in the area the department is home to many military cemeteries and several major monuments commemorating the many soldiers from various countries who died on its battlefields.

At the beginning of the First World War, during the September 1914 Race to the Sea, the Somme became the site of the Battle of Albert. The battle was a five day engagement between the 25th and 29 September, with the French Tenth Army attacking at Albert and pushing toward Bapaume, and the German Sixth Army counter-attacking back towards Albert. The line settled around the town of Thiepval and remained there until July 1916, when the Battle of the Somme would be fought on and around the same ground.

Albert Jacka VC, MC & Bar (10 January 1893 – 17 January 1932) was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry "in the face of the enemy" that can be awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces. Jacka was the first Australian to be decorated with the VC during the First World War, receiving the medal for his actions during the Gallipoli Campaign. He later served on the Western Front and was twice further decorated for his bravery.

Upon the conclusion of the war, Jacka returned to Australia and entered business; establishing the electrical goods importing and exporting business Roxburgh, Jacka & Co. Pty Ltd. He was later elected to the local council, where he became the mayor of the City of St Kilda. Jacka never fully recovered from the multiple wounds he sustained during his war service, and died at the age of 39.

Albert Jacka was born on a dairy farm near Winchelsea, Victoria on 10 January 1893, the fourth of seven children to Nathaniel Jacka and his English-born wife Elizabeth (ńee Kettle). His family moved to Wedderburn, Victoria when he was five years old, where he attended the local school before working with his father as a haulage contractor. He was working for the Victorian State Forests Department when the First World War broke out.