Pte F Friend, 1/8th and 10th West Yorkshire Regiment, wounded in action circa December 1917-January 1918

Pte F Friend, 1/8th and 10th Bns, West Yorkshire Regiment, wounded in action

Frederick Friend served in the British Army as a Private under the regimental number 42845. He is probably identified with Frederick Friend, son of Frederick George and Annie Friend, born in Beaford, Devon, circa 1894, and in 1911 was a farmer’s son working on the farm at Ruxford Barton, Sandford, Crediton. From the 1911 Census record it appears that he was the middle child of five.  Possibly, like 42862 Pte Edward John Moore, who also served with the Leeds Rifles, he was posted to the West Yorkshire Regiment after a period of infantry training at home in mid-1917, going overseas around the end of July or beginning of August 1917. (By comparison Pte Moore passed through the Army Service Corps as a trainee driver and then the 83rd Training Reserve Battalion to train as an infantryman before he was transferred to the West Yorkshire Regiment and posted to the 1/8th Battalion with effect from 1 August 1917.  

Pte Friend served with the 1/8th (Leeds Rifles) and 10th (Service) Battalions, the West Yorkshire Regiment. He very possibly went overseas in time to take part in the Third Battle of Ypres, like the similarly-numbered 42847 Pte Edward Forrest and 42848 Pte William Hogg, who were both killed in action with the 1/8th on 9 October 1917, the Battle of Poelcapelle. The war diary of 146th Brigade, 49th Division (of which the 1/8th was a part) comments on the poor state of the ground, the thin British barrage and limited effectiveness of the localised explosions of the HE ammunition fired by the British artillery caused by the ground conditions, the very deadly sniping of the two Jaeger battalions opposite, and the success of the battalion in taking 30 prisoners notwithstanding the conditions. 

Not long after this, as F Friend, next of kin address Crediton, Pte Friend was Listed as Wounded in War Office Daily List No. 5484, report date 05/02/1918, suggesting he was wounded in December 1917 or January 1918. In November the 1/8th battalion was initially in billets at Steenvorde and later in the line before going into reserve at Walker Camp. 

It is possible that he was wounded at the same time as 3042/305880 Pte Frederick Vollans, also of the 1/8th, who appears on the same fragmentary report as suffering an SW to the back (recorded as ‘chest’ in some other records), although Pte Vollans appeared on an earlier War Office Daily List, No. 5456 Report Date 03/01/1918. Having been wounded on 29 November 1917, probably whilst in one of the working parties for which the battalion furnished 400 men whilst in divisional support, Pte Vollans passed through 2/1 East Lancashire Field Ambulance, 3 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station and 1 Canadian Stationary Hospital, and was posted home from France to the 91st Territorial Force Depot on 11 January 1918.  

Alternatively, Pte Friend may have been wounded somewhat later. A similar pattern of activity to November’s was observed by the 1/8th in December 1917, 19 other ranks being wounded in the month. In January 1918, the battalion went back into the line in the Zonnebeke sector on 8 January, in relief of the 1/7th Battalion. The brigade war diary comments on the activity of enemy artillery in the next three days and it is possibly in the course of this that Pte Friend was wounded.  

A fragmentary report indicates that Pte Friend’s wound was a SW  (possibly shrapnel wound) to the buttocks. The record confirms that he was serving with the 1/8th at the time. As such he was entitled to wear a "Wound Stripe" as authorised under Army Order 204 of 6th July 1916, the terms of this award being met by being named in this list. At some point Pte Friend was admitted to the 14th Convalescent Depot (presumably the one at Trouville, opened September 1917). He clearly subsequently returned to the front, as at the Armistice, Pte Friend was with the 10th Battalion in 62nd Division. With them he caught Influenza and was admitted with two other men of the battalion circa 10 November 1918 directly to No.34 Casualty Clearing Station, then to No.8 Ambulance Train and presumably from there to a base or stationary hospital near the French coast. He was one of 14 men admitted to the CCS that day with influenza. At this time his regimental number was mis-recorded as 42843. This record gave his religion as Wesleyan (Methodist). 

Pte Friend was discharged to the Army Class ‘Z’ Reserve on 16 March 1919. He would have received the British War Medal and Victory Medal, being his full entitlement, some time after the end of April 1920.

The marriage of Frederick Friend to Frances A Lambert Growyn was registered in the last quarter of 1931 in Crediton, Devon. In 1939 Frederick Friend, born 7 July 1893, was living at Eastacott, Crediton with Frances A Friend, his occupation in the census register being recorded as Farmer. Frederick Friend of Eastacott Farm died at Crediton on 21 December 1972, leaving an estate of £9584.

Plaque & pair to 340485 Pte G H Booth, 1st Northumberland Fusiliers, killed in action 7 May 1918 at La Bassee

George Henry Booth was born circa 1896, in Woodseats just south of Sheffield, to John Booth and Hannah Maria Booth, of 18, Coldstream Place, Woodseats. In 1911 George Henry was a grocer’s errand boy, aged circa 15, whilst his father, John, by now aged 59, was a general labourer with the corporation highways department. George Henry appears to have been the youngest of six children, five of whom were still living in the family home, Ethel, Edith and Annie being servants and John Arthur, nine years George’s senior, being an engineer’s toolmaker in a steelworks (Annie, the third eldest, does not have an occupation recorded and possibly assisted her mother around the house).

Judging from the records of 340497 Charles Henry Moxon, Pte Booth may have been a ‘Derby Scheme’ recruit and spent some time on the Army Reserve before being mobilised – possibly around June 1916 – and then posted to the Northumberland Fusiliers. He may have had a 4-digit Territorial Force number (now unrecorded) before receiving the new 6-digit number with which he went overseas upon the renumbering of the Territorial Force Infantry in March 11917. His six-digit number is in the range for the 36th Battalion, a Territorial unit formed in January 1917. After enlistment, at some point George passed through the 1/4th Northumberland Fusiliers. This was possibly a paper posting; as 340485 Pte George Henry Booth by May 1918 he had been posted-on to the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers, a Regular battalion serving with the 9th Brigade of 3rd Division. Judging by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Soldiers Died in the Great War entries of comrades with adjacent numbers, this may have taken place some time prior to mid-April 1918, thus putting him in line to fight in the Battle of the Lys.

The 3rd Division had taken part in the battles of the German Spring Offensive around St Quentin in the previous month (March 1918) and when the German Lys offensive (Operation Georgette) broke on 9 April 1918 was in reserve. The division was brought forward and deployed as part of the defence of Estaires on the Lys in the southern part of the battle sector and then dispersed, the 9th Brigade, of which the 1st Northumberlands was a part, being sent to assist the 55th Division in XI Corps successfully defending Bethune against attacks from the southern divisions of the German Sixth Army. Following this the latter half of April was spent slightly more quietly in and out of the line at La Lawe Canal. In early May the battalion moved from billets in Choques, where it had been reorganising, undergoing inspection, using the baths, practising on the rifle ranges, assimilating a draft of 100 other ranks and trench digging, to once more take up the line around the canal on the night of the 4/5th May. The battalion marched out at 7,30pm, ‘Y’, ‘X’, ‘Z’ and ‘W’ Companies and HQ proceeding to the Left Front, Right Front, Support and reserve positions, respectively. As narrated in the War Diary “The B[attalio]n had some difficulty in getting into position. In the first place there was a small concentration of gas at the guides rendezvous, and secondly the enemy was barraging the Canal bridges, which hostile liveliness developed into an attack at about 3.5am 5/5/18…” The next day had poor weather and quieter conditions except towards evening when there was a call for retaliatory fire on a German post, establishment of new posts and taking of German prisoners from the 25th Hessen Division (“friendly people” according to the War Diary). The 6th saw enemy aircraft more active, one flying low over the new outposts established by ‘Y’ Company on the east side of the canal, and concentration ‘crashes’ fired by Corps artillery in the late morning. Improving visibility in the afternoon led to both sides’ artillery becoming more active. Orders were also given for an inter-company relief, ‘Z’ Company to replace ‘Y’ in the Left Front, east of the Canal.

It seems likely that Pte Booth was a victim of German artillery fire, killed in the attempts to relieve ‘Y’ Company as the front-line company for the battalion’s Left Front on the nights of 6/7th or 7/8th May. As indicated earlier, German artillery appears to have had the Canal bridges well-covered, the war diary for the 6th commenting “some blue cross  gas shells on vicinity of only crossing with result that only 1 platoon of Y was relieved”. Then, on the 7th it noted “Artilleries fairly active during early afternoon increasing in volume until night when enemy maintained a harassing fire for the whole night, all calibres being employed, gas and H.E. being utilized, only 1 more platoon of Y was able to be relieved.” 5963 Sgt W Coates, also of the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers, was killed on the same day and lies next to him in Choques Military Cemetery. Pte Booth was one of 25 men of the battalion killed during the month. His financial effects of £9 13s 4d, and War Gratuity of £8 10s, were paid to his father John in October 1918 and December 1919 respectively. A dependant’s pension was also claimed for his mother Hannah Maria, although the outcome of this does not appear to have been recorded.