Name
Frederick Essie Gordon Watson
1891
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/07/1916
24
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
281186
London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers)
(3415) 1st/4th (City of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 9 D and 16 B.
France
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the fallen in France.
UK & Other Memorials
Bushey Town Memorial, St James’ Church Memorial, Bushey, Not on the Chipperfield Memorials
Pre War
Born in the registration district of St Pancras in the last quarter of 1891, Frederick Essie Gordon Watson was the son of Frederick (Snr.) and Edith Ann (nee Eldridge) Watson. His parents were married in 1888 in the registration district of St Pancras.
At the 1901 census, Frederick was nine years old and living with his parents and two older brothers, named Cyril and Wilfred, at 181 High Street in Watford. Frederick (Snr.) and Edith were aged 50 and 47 years respectively and he was employed as a Railway Station Master. Cyril and Wilfred were 22 and 11 years old respectively and Cyril was working as a carpenter’s labourer. Also present was 49-year-old Esther Eldridge, the sister of Edith, who was working as a domestic housekeeper. Birthplaces for the family were given as Watford for Frederick (Snr.), Aldeburgh in Suffolk for Edith and Esther, Rugby in Warwick for Cyril and Middlesex (viz St Pancras) in London for Wilfred and Frederick.
By the time of the 1911 census, Frederick (Snr.) and Edith had moved to 162 High Street in Watford and Frederick (Snr.) was still working as a station master, now for the London and North Western Railway. Cyril was not recorded, and it is possible he had died because it stated Frederick (Snr.) and Edith had had 3 children one of whom had died. Both Wilfred and Frederick were now employed as Solicitor’s Clerks.
Wartime Service
When war broke out, Frederick Essie Gordon Watson enlisted at Shaftesbury Street, London with the London Regiment. He served as Lance Corporal 281186 / 3415 in the 4th (City of London) Battalion (Royal Fusiliers). He was presumed killed in action, aged 24, on 1 July 1916 the first day of the Somme.
He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, and on the Bushey Memorial at Clay Hill and at St James’ Parish Church in Bushey. His parents later moved to Alexandra Road, Chapel Croft, Chipperfield, Hertfordshire.
The Registers of Soldiers’ Effects named his father, Frederick, as his sole legate and included payments of £2 18s. 11d. in back pay, paid on 18 July 1917, plus a £7 War Grant paid on 9 October 1919. Another contemporary record (possibly part of pension card) gives the address for Edith as 68 Falconer Road in Bushey. The Commonwealth War Graves site gives the address for Frederick and Edith as Alexandra Road, Chapel Croft, Chipperfield, Herts.
Frederick (Snr.) died in 1928 and the 1939 Register for England and Wales recorded Edith living at 84 Cecil Street in Watford with a Rebekah Garner. Edith died in 1941 and the National Probate Calendar for 1941 states: “WATSON Edith Ann of 84 Cecil Street Watford Hertfordshire widow died 21 January 1941 at 60 Vicarage-road Watford Probate Llandudno 1 April to Wilfred Eldridge Watson solicitors management clerk. Effects £578 6s. 6d.
Additional Information
He has no connection to Chipperfield other than his parents moved to Chipperfield after his death. Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
Acknowledgments
Andrew Palmer, Stuart Osborne
Dianne Payne - www.busheyworldwarone.org.uk, Jonty Wild
