Albert was born on 19 November 1920 on Tobacco Road in Wapping, London, close to the Docks, where he lived with his brothers Edward, George, and Jack.

Uncle Albert, as he was known by his two great nephews, Del Boy and Rodney, joined the cast in 1985 during the episode Strained Relations when he attended the funeral of his older brother Ted.

After hours of preparation and worrying about the meal, and the oversized table, everything appears to be going well until Del realises that Albert has confused the jars containing coffee and gravy granules.

Albert had a female companion called Elsie Partridge, who was first mentioned by Rodney in The Unlucky Winner Is..., and appeared in the episode Sickness and Wealth.

His nephews often teased him about this as well as his ability to sink ships and, with his bald head and big white beard, his resemblance to Captain Birdseye.

Originally, the final episode of Only Fools and Horses was meant to be Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, with Del Boy leaving for Australia with new partner Jumbo Mills, Uncle Albert staying in Nelson Mandela House, and Rodney and Mickey Pearce taking over Trotters Independent Traders, but John Sullivan felt that this was not the end of the road for the Trotters.

Del and Rodney, who had since become millionaires, regretted not having taken him with them, but were consoled by the revelation that the Ancient Mariner never actually held a passport and at the same time showing up at the wrong funeral to someone else called Albert.

In the 2002 special, Strangers on the Shore, the two scatter Albert's ashes in the English Channel, before visiting the French village where Albert had been stationed for a time during the war only to find an entire town inhabited by bald men with white beards who all bore more than a passing resemblance to their late uncle (implied to all be children of his from his sexual proclivity at the time), they joked it should have been called "Trottersville".

In the 2003 special, Sleepless in Peckham, it was revealed that Albert had invested his share of the Trotter fortune in a safer area prior to his death.