Pte Frederick Gutteridge served with the 23rd (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment. This was a Territorial infantry unit, which formed part of the 142nd Brigade, 47th (2nd London) Division. He served under the Regimental number 702784, within the number bloc allocated to the 23rd Battalion. He may have joined up circa June 1916. He went overseas to the France and Flanders theatre on 5 January 1917, probably (given that the 2/23rd was serving in Salonika at the time) there joining the strength of the 1/23rd Battalion; the British Jewry Book of Honour confirms this assumption. The 1/23rd battalion had been out in France and Flanders from March 1915, seeing active service at Festubert and Loos in 1915, on the Somme (at High Wood and Eaucourt L'Abbaye) in 1916 and Messines, Ypres, and Cambrai (being involved in the capture of Bourlon Wood and then the subsequent counter-attack) in 1917, followed by the Somme again in 1918. Pte Gutteridge’s date of entry would have put him in line to take part in all of the 1917 actions.
Pte Gutteridge was wounded twice, the first time probably in late March 1918 during the German Spring Offensive. The battalion had just gone into divisional reserve at Metz when the Battle of St Quentin opened in the early morning of 21 March 1918 and found itself manning switch trenches before being moved forward to form a defensive flank north of Gouzeaucourt Wood on the night of the 22nd and then back to Metz Switch in the early hours of the 23rd, from which it repelled frequent enemy attacks until forced to withdraw via Equancourt and Valhuart Wood. The 24th and 25th saw the battalion being forced back across the old Somme battlefields of 1916 including Le Transloy, High Wood, Contalmaison and Bazentin-le-Petit, and beyond, finally billeting at Warloy at 1.30am on 28 March and then taking up positions at Martinsart on the 29th-31st. Casualties for the period 21-26 March were estimated at 1 officer and 19 other ranks killed, 8 officers and 94 other ranks wounded, and 8 officers and 141 other ranks missing. 4 April saw the battalion relieve the 22/Londons in the front line at Aveluy Wood, just in time to take part in further fierce fighting on 5 April during which the battalion, now reduced to 5 officers and 150 men, was pushed out of the wood. It was finally relieved from its positions on 7 April and was not committed to action again that month. It is almost certainly in the course of the actions during the Battle of St Quentin and following that Pte Gutteridge was wounded. As 702784 Private Gutteridge, F, London Regiment, he was listed as Wounded in War Office Daily List No.5560, Report Date 8 May 1918, being entitled to wear a "Wound Stripe" as authorised under Army Order 204 of 6 July 1916 in consequence. The list confirmed his Next of Kin Address as Seven Sisters Road, London N.
He was again listed as Wounded in War Office Daily List No.5681, Report Date 27 Sep 1918, thereby entitling him to wear a second "Wound Stripe". Presuming (per medal roll entry) that he returned to his battalion after recovering from his wound, this was probably in the course of the great Allied counter-offensive commencing August 1918. The beginning of August saw the battalion in Brigade Reserve at Millencourt, spending the next fortnight in and out of the line at Henecourt, Marett Wood, and Morlancourt, suffering a small amount of casualties on 13, 14, 15, 16 and 18 August, before taking part in the attack on 22 August, the second Battle of the Somme, in which 261 other rank casualties were incurred. On 25 August 1918 Pte Gutteridge was posted home, most probably due to wounds incurred in the 22 August assault, after just under one year and eight months' overseas service. Given the date of his Casualty List entry, it is likely that there was only a very short interval of time between his being wounded and sent home. It is not clear whether he went overseas again to join his battalion, which during the closing stages of the war was taking part in the Final Advance in Artois, taking Lille and Tournai.
He would have received his British War Medal and Victory Medal, representing his full entitlement, some time after October 1920. Pte Gutteridge, his regimental number incorrectly given as 70784, is listed in the London Regiment section of the British Jewry Book of Honour, 1914-1920, as Pte. GUTTERIDGE, F., 1/23rd Battalion.
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