Frederick John Jolly

Name

Frederick John Jolly
7 Aug 1885

Conflict

First World War

Date of Death / Age

20/08/1918
32

Rank, Service Number & Service Details

Captain
Hertfordshire Yeomanry
1st.

Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards

1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals

Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country

REDBOURN (ST. MARY) CHURCHYARD
United Kingdom

Headstone Inscription

None

UK & Other Memorials

Redbourn Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Memorial, Redbourn, Hertfordshire Yeomanry Memorial, St Albans Cathedral, Whitwell Village Memorial

Pre War

Frederick Jolly was born on 7 Aug 1885 in Withersfield, nr Haverhill, Suffolk, the son of Thomas Jolly, Farm Bailiff and Millicent (nee Hollis)  and was one of nine children. 

On the 1891 Census his parents (his father was now a Farm manager) and family of Ethel (born 1873), Edward (born 1878), William (born 1879), Emily (born 1881), Harry (born 1882), Frederick, Ernest (born 1887), and Fanny (born 1888) were living in Withersfield. There was an older sister (not recorded on this census)Alice (born 1873).

By 1901 the family consisting of parents, Ethel, William. Emily, Harry, Frederick, now a stockman on farm, Ernest and Fanny had moved to Birds Pasture Farm, Boxworth, Cambridgeshire.

Although his parents were living in Flamstead Bury Farm, Redbourn, Hertfordshire in 1911 with Ernest and Fanny, Frederick was listed in East Hall Farm, Whitwell, St Pauls Walden in 1911 and working as a farmer.

An article in the Hertfordshire Express of the 31st of August 1918 states that before the war Frederick was responsible for the management of Lord Strathmore's farms at St. Paul's Walden. He was held in high esteem by the farmers and frequently attended the Hitchin markets.

 His home address was later given as Mill House, Redbourn, St Albans, Herts.

Wartime Service

Frederick joined the Hertfordshire Yeomanry ten years before his death and served as Serjeant 1704 and left shortly before the war but upon the outbreak of hostilities he re-joined immediately as Serjeant with 1st/1st Hertfordshire Yeomanry, sailing for Egypt on 9 September 1914 and arriving on 5 November 1914. He served in Egypt, he went to Gallipoli with Herts Yeomanry as dismounted cavalry landing at Suvla Bay on 6 Aug 1915 and after the withdrawal returned to Egypt and the Western Desert. In Mar 1916 the Herts Yeomanry were split and each Squadron served in different formations. The Hertfordshire Express article mentions his service in Egypt at the end of 1916, and that he fought in the engagement against the Senussi at Matruh on Christmas Day 1916.

Frederick and his comrade Lieutenant Walwyn Taylor were called to England in January 1916 and he was appointed 2nd Lt, Herts Yeomanry on the 28 Jan 1916, Lieutenant on the 28 Jul 1917 and then Acting Captain on 13 Jun 1918 while commanding a company.

He died aged 32 of pleurisy and pneumonia at the General Military Hospital in Colchester, following three other attacks of pneumonia which were preceded by Spanish influenza.

Additional Information

The Hertfordshire Express article of 31 August 1918 mentions a brother (bank clerk, unnamed) who was "killed during a memorable happening at Hertford since the war." In fact his brother Ernest died on 13 October 1915 at the Conservative Club in Hertford. 

Probate of £341 10s was granted in London on 28 Jun 1919 to his mother Millicent. Her address was given as Mill House, Redbourn, Hertfordshire. She also received a war gratuity of £11 and arrears of  £159 19s 6d. 

Frederick's grave (not CWGC) bears the inscription:

Acknowledgments

Derry Warners, Brenda Palmer, Neil Cooper
Malcolm Lennox, Gareth Hughes, Jonty Wild,