Name
Frederick Daniel Wells (poss Wills) (*1)
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
30/07/1916
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
1915
Hertfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LOOS MEMORIAL
Panel 135.
France
Headstone Inscription
NA
UK & Other Memorials
St Albans Citizens Memorial, Town Hall (old) Memorial, St Albans, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford, Not on the Hitchin memorials
Pre War
Frederick Daniel Wells was born in 1892 and although SDITGW suggests Hitchin, all other documentation – birth registration and census gives St Albans - also he was christened in St Albans on 14 October 1896. His parents were Daniel and Charlotte Emily (Lottie) Wells (née Spring, who married in St Albans in 1886. However, Frederick was living Hitchin in 1912 and was perhaps still there when war was declared, but he did marry later in St Albans in 1914.
In 1901 the family were living at 5 Barnard Street, St Albans. Present were both parents: Daniel (33) working as a carpenter and Charlotte (32) a straw hat machinist. Their children were: Fred (9), Percy (6), Mabel (3) and Grace (2).
By 1911 the family were living at Rose Cottages, Ladysmith Rd, St Albans. Present were both parents, Daniel now working as a carpenter joiner. The census recorded they had been married for 26 years with 8 children, of whom 2 had died. All the above children were present, Frederick was now 19 and working as a printer’s layer. New siblings were , Albert (9) and George (7). Frederick’s grandmother, Elizabeth Spring, now a widow of 73 was listed as a boarder.
Frederick enlisted into the Herts Territorial Force in Hitchin in 26 April 1912. At that time he was living there at 57 Hitchin Hill and working for J M Dent Printers as a printer’s devil (apprentice). At his medical on 30 April 1912 he was 20 years and one month old and described as 5’ 2” tall, with a 33 chest after a 2 ¼” expansion.
He married Nora Spring in St Albans late in 1914.
The Soldiers Died In The Great War (SDITGW) database records that he was born, living and enlisting in Hitchin, but as mentioned above we believe that his birth was in Sta Albans.
Wartime Service
Frederick arrived in France 6 November 1914. On the December 14th he was admitted to No. 4 Field Ambulance with diarrhoea which began while on the ‘line of march’. The next day he was admitted to No. 11 General Hospital with a stomach infection, then transferred to a hospital in Rouen in the 31st. Re-joining his Battalion from hospital on January 23rd 1915.
That was not the end of his bad health. He was admitted to No. 4 Field Ambulance on February 5th and was discharged to duty on the 9th.
For some reason he was given 14 days Field Punishment No. 2 on 25 March 1915.
He was struck down with appendicitis in the field on 17 October 1915 and admitted to No. 6 Field Ambulance. By the 19th he was admitted to No. 33 Casualty Clearing Station, then Lahore General Hospital in Calais on the 24th and then returned to England on the 29th. It was probably after this that he was transferred to the 3/1st Herts Regiment. During his time in England recuperating he trained as a shoeing smith, qualifying on 11 February 1916.
He was in the 3/1st Herts when he embarked from Southampton on 21 April 1916 landing in Rouen when he posted back to the 1/1st Herts. The next day and went to No. 1 Troop Base Depot the same day. He went No. 6 Entrenching Battalion on 19 May then was attached to the 8th Gloucesters in the field on 11 July and was missing in action on the 30 July 1916 a later presumed killed in that date.
In August 1916 his widow’s address was Craven Park Road, Willesden and at that time she was still receiving a separation allowance of 9s a week and an allotment of 3s 6d from Frederick’s pay
Additional Information
After his death £2 9s 5d pay owing was authorised to go to his widow, Nora, on 20 November 1916. Later, a war gratuity of £9 was authorised to be paid to her 30 September 1919.
His pension cards record Nora as his widow and dependant, living at 50 Wyndham Road, Kingston on Thames. She was awarded pension of 10s a week from 19 February 1917 and a grant of £5 paid in 14 April 1919.
His widow, Nora Wells completed the Army form for recording his living relatives, while living at 1 Park Road, Kingston Hill, Kingston on Thames and it was witnessed on 13 October(?) 1919. It confirmed Nora as his widow, Daniel and ‘Lottie’ (Charlotte) Wells of 48 Ladysmith Road, St Albans as his parents and brother Percy (25) and sisters Mabel (22) and Grace (19) all at his parents’ address.
His widow was living at 50 Wyndham Road, Kingston on Thames in 20 November 1916 received signed for his British War and Victory medals on April 14th, 1921
Acknowledgments
Gareth Hughes, Jonty Wild
