Name
Stanley Francis Foster
10 Feb 1886
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
06/08/1917
30
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
33276
Bedfordshire Regiment
6th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
DERRY HOUSE CEMETERY NO.2
I. D. 2.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
VICTORIOUS HIS FALL HE ROSE AS HE FELL WITH JESUS IN GLORY TO DWELL
UK & Other Memorials
Tring Town Memorial, St Peter & St Paul Church Roll of Honour, Tring, Berkhamsted Town Memorial
Pre War
Stanley Francis Prior Foster was born in Tring on 10 Feb 1886, the son and eldest child of Josiah William (known as William) and Caroline Foster (nee Prior), and was baptised on 27 Sep 1892 at Tring, aged 6. He was one of nine children.
On the 1891 Census the family of parents, Stanley, Gertrude Annie (born 1890), were living at 13 Harrow Yard, Tring, where his father was working as an agricultural labourer.
They had moved to 88 Akeman Street, Tring at the time of the 1901 Census and Stanley was working as a labourer on a farm. The rest of the family consisted of parents, Gertrude, William James (born 1892), Harold (born 1894), Winifred Emily (born 1897) and Gwendoline Dorothy (born 1900).
Stanley has not been found on the 1911 Census, but his family of parents, Gertrude, William J, Harold, Winifred E, Gwendoline D, Frederick Arthur Ernest (born 1902), Kathleen Daisy (born 1906), Irene Ruby (born 1910) , remained in Tring at Wilstone.
He married Alice Maud Ward on 1 Jun 1914 in Berkhamsted. They do not appear to have had any children. Prior to enlistment he was working for John Gower & Son, Contractors.
Wartime Service
Frank (as he seems to have been known) enlisted in Bedford and joined the Bedfordshire Regiment, as Private 33276 serving with the 6th (Service) Battalion.
No Service Record was found for Frank but it would had been posted to the Battalion in 112 Brigade, 37 Division in France sometime in 1916 and may been at the Battle of the Ancre (13-18 Nov 1916), Arras (1917) for the Battles of 1st Scarpe (9-14 Apr) and Arleux (28-29 Apr).He was killed in action on 6 Aug 1917 when the Battalion were at Ypres to taking part in the Battle of 3rd Ypres (Passchendaele) and is buried in Derry House Cemetery No. 2, France.
An extract from the 6th Bn. War Diary for the period of his death gives no clue:
‘2nd August 1917 − Battalion moved to camp on Kemmel Hill relieving 8th Lincoln Regt.
3th-4th August 1917 − Battalion in camp at Kemmel. Weather still very bad indeed. Large working parties in the front line.
5th August 1917 − Major F. G. Mackenzie to hospital sick. Capt. A. T. Hitch took over the duties of 2nd in command. 2/Lt C.E.Kirk [Charles Edmund Kirk] & 4 other ranks killed, & 4 other ranks wounded on a working party.
6th August 1917 − Battalion moved to support area at Rossignol Wood.’
It is likely that he was killed in the intermittent shelling to which British front line trenches were subjected.
Additional Information
His widow Alice received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing totalling £3 10s 3d. She also appears to have received a pension although the amount is unknown. His mother is also named on the pension card, living at 4 Council Cottages, New Mill, Tring.
Alice remarried in 1927 to Frank Stratford and lived at Pin Cottage, Angle Race, Berkhamsted.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer, Neil Cooper
Jonty Wild, www.bedfordregiment.org.uk
