Name
Frederick George Martin
10 February 1886
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
04/10/1918
32
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Bombardier
61074
Royal Field Artillery
81st Brigade
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
TINCOURT NEW BRITISH CEMETERY
V.J.49
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Ayot St Lawrence Memorial
Pre War
Frederick George Martin was born on 10 February 1886 in Woolwich, London, the son of Patrick & Emily Martin and baptised at St Michael and all Angels, in Woolwich on 7 March 1886.
On the 1891 and 1901 Censuses he was living with his grandparents. John and Mary Wicks at Ayot St Lawrence, Herts. But on the 1911 Census he was listed as a Gunner at Woolwich Barracks having enlisted in Woolwich into the Royal Field Artillery in March 1910. He was said to be a Gardener on enlistment.
Wartime Service
As a serving soldier he was one of the first to be sent into action and arrived in France on 16 August 1914.
He was a servant to Lt W J Handford from December 1914 to April 1916. On 2 October 1917 he was promoted from Gunner to Bombardier. He was gassed, repatriated to England and admitted to Whipps Cross War Hospital, Leytonstone on 30 March 1918 and but recovered and discharged on 13 April. In October 1918 he suffered a fractured skull and died on 4 October 1918 at the 53rd Casualty Clearing Station in France.
A brief article in the Hertfordshire Express published in November 1918 announces he was killed in action on 4 October and describes a memorial service held at Ayot St. Lawrence church where Cannon Nance of Wheathampstead made "fitting allusion to the gallant death of this promising young man".
Additional Information
His father died when he was a baby and his mother Emily Martin worked at Barham Hall, Ipswich, Suffolk as cook to a retired Major General. She received a war gratuity of £25 10s and pay owing of £30 18s 2d. Mrs A Stagg (his aunt), who lived at Ayot St Lawrence, received his medals in May 1921 as his mother had died.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer, Derry Warners
Lindsay Jennings
