Name
Frederick George Eames
29 May 1883
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
15/04/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
7326
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star (with Clasp & Roses), British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BARLIN COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION
I. A. 15.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Boxmoor memorials, Not on the Watford memorials
Pre War
Frederick George Eames was born in Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead on 29 May 1883, the son of Alfred and Elizabeth (nee HEMLEY) Eames, and baptised on 17 June 1883 at St Mary's, Apsley, Herts.
His parents married 21 September 1874 at St John the Evangelist, Boxmoor, Herts. Alfred died 1912 in the Wandsworth, London, district aged 71; Elizabeth died 1923 in the Hemel Hempstead, Herts, district aged 74.
On the 1891 Census the family, parents Frederick (7) and three siblings, were living at 8 London Road, Hemel Hempstead, where his father was working as a Road Labourer. On the 1901 Census, a mate on a boat aged 19, the boat was moored in Hemel Hempstead.
In April 1906 he was charged with 'feloniously wounding Emily Lilian Saunders with intent to kill and murder her and do grievous bodily harm'. He pleaded guilty to 'wounding to do grievous bodily harm' and was sentenced to 9 months hard labour at Wormwood Scrubs prison.
On the 1911 Census he was a boarder at the home of Emily Lilian Saunders and her five young children, at 1 Green End, Oxford Road, Aylesbury, Bucks when he was working as a Carman. She was said to be married but her husband Joseph William Saunders was not listed with them, instead he was a lodger living in London at 30 Little Carlisle Street, St Marylebone where he was working for the railway and said to be single. They had married in Watford in 1900.
Frederick's reg. no. of 7326, suggests that he had joined the Bedfordshire Regiment between July 1902 and January 1903 and having served his time, would have been recalled from the reserve at the outbreak of war.
Officially recorded as born in Boxmoor and was living in Watford when he enlisted in Berkhamsted, Herts.
Wartime Service
His medal record card states that he served in France from 26 August 1914 with the 1st Battalion initially as a Private, but later as a Lance Corporal.
He would have soon seen action at the First Battles of the Marne and Aisne in September followed by the Battle of La Bassee and First Battle of Ypres before the end of the year. Having fought and survived the next two years he died on 15 April 1917 from wounds received in action when the Battalion was in action near Vimy and Givenchy and is buried at Barlin Communal Cemetery Extension, France.
was entitled to the Victory, British War and 1914 Star medals, his qualifying date being 26 August 1914
Additional Information
His sole legatee was Emily Lilian Saunders who received a war gratuity of £15 10s and pay owing of £8 9s 3d. Pension records suggest that payment was made to guardians in respect of Emily Saunders youngest children, Frederick (b 1907), Alfred (b.1909) and William (b.1910).
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
