Name
Frederick Field
1876
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
17/07/1916
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Serjeant
5352
Bedfordshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
TINCOURT NEW BRITISH CEMETERY
Manancourt Chyd. Mem. 25.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial
Pre War
Frederick Field was born in 1876 in Hemel Hempstead, Herts the son of John and Sarah Field, and baptised there on 1 August 1877. He was one of four boys.
On the 1881 Census, the family were living at Bury Mill Hill, where his father was working as a General Labourer and his mother was a straw plaiter. His mother died in 1883 and his father remarried in 1885 to Sarah Stevens and in 1891 Frederick was living with his father, stepmother and stepsiblings William and Annie Stevens at 8 Keens Place, Hemel Hempstead. Frederick was then working as a Paper Mill Hand (at John Dickinson & Co Ltd) and his father was a Roadsman.
By the 1911 Census Frederick was a Private, serving with the Bedfordshire Regiment and living at the Government Barracks, Kempston, Beds. He had enlisted on 18 January 1893 with the Militia, deciding soon after to become a regular soldier. He then served for four years before transferring to the Reserve.
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of war, Frederick re-enlisted in Hemel Hempstead in August 1914 and served with his old regiment, the Bedfordshire Regiment. He wasn't called up for service overseas immediately but his previous military experience meant that he was quickly promoted to Corporal and then Sergeant before arriving in France on 30 September 1915.
He joined the 2nd Battalion in the trenches at Cuinchy on 4 October and saw action there for several months before moving to trenches near Maricourt in early 1916. The weather was very severe in February with heavy snow reported at the end of the month and into March. They spent most of April at Grovetown Camp on working parties with the Royal Engineers.
The 2nd Battalion fought in the Battle of Albert (part of the Battle of the Somme) in June 1916 and at some point Frederick was wounded and taken prisoner. German records indicate that he died from wounds on 17 July 1916, aged 40, and was buried in Manancourt Churchyard, near where he was captured. He was one of two prisoners of war who died and who were buried at Manancourt Churchyard, but whose graves were later lost. There is a special memorial to them in Tincourt New British Cemetery, France.
Additional Information
Original documentation dated 1925 gives the following: "Memorial Row - To the memory of these two British Soldiers who died in 1916 as Prisoners of War, and were buried at the time in Manancourt Churchyard, but whose graves are now lost. Their glory shall not be blotted out." (Those named are 2nd Bedfords, 5352 Field, Pte F, 17/7/16 and 6th Northants, 16746 Marlow, Pte W, 14/7/16.) Pension records give his 'unmarried wife' as Miss Wise (now Hall) living at 17 St John's Place, Bedford. (Edith Wise married Herbert Hall in 1921 in Bedford). Miss Wise (unmarried wife) was awarded a pension of 5 shillings a week. His brother and legatee Charles received £19 7s 5d pay owing and £14 war gratuity. His nephew Charles received pay owing of £2 18s 9d, and his sister in law Mrs Jane Mary Stanley (Guardian of Albert) received £2 18s 8d pay owing.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroes.com.
