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.