Name
Frederick Reginald Allen
Oct-Dec 1891
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
12/04/1917
24
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
27968
Bedfordshire Regiment
6th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ARRAS MEMORIAL
Bay 5.
France
Headstone Inscription
No known grave
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Redbourn memorials
Pre War
Born in 1891 in Redbourn, Herts. son of Frederick and Ellen Allen.
1901 Census shows living in Vicarage Cottage, Redbourn.
1911 Census shows living at 63 Havelock Road, Luton in 1911, employed as a chemist’s porter.
He later worked as a velvet cutter for Charles Clay & Son, Waldeck Road and lived at 63 Havelock Road Luton.
Enlisted at Ampthill, Beds.
Wartime Service
Luton's Great War website(*1) gives the following details and have kidlt allowed them to be given here.
Pte Frederick Reginald Allen, 27968, 6th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in action while serving as a stretcher bearer in Flanders on April 9th, 1917. He was aged 27.
In a letter to parents Frederick and Ellen Allen, of 63 Havelock Road, Luton, Capt F. B. Williams wrote: "It is with the deepest regret that I have to inform you of the death of your son, Pte F. R. Allen, who was killed in action whilst the battalion was attacking on April 9th. You may be comforted to know that your son died whilst helping others - a more noble death is hard to imagine...If he had lived I should have undoubtedly recommended him for distinguished service in these last operations."
Talking of his own personal loss with the death of Pte Allen, L-Cpl H. W. Hanby wrote: "For something like 24 hours he and other stretcher bearers worked very hard carrying wounded men out of the line to a dressing station. One of them was Richardson, whose home was at Maulden, and who came out with the same draft as your son. While they were at the dressing station shells fell so close that Richardson asked the bearers to shift his position.
"Your son and two others left their shelter to go to the stretcher. At that moment your son and another bearer, named [Pte William Charles] Mossman, were killed by a shell. The man on the stretcher and another stretcher bearer were not hit. The knowledge that your son died a noble death while saving a comrade will, I hope, help to temper your feelings of sorrow. He was a son to be proud of."
The Allen family were all born in Redbourn and had arrived in Luton by the time of the 1911 Census. Before enlisting in March 1916, Frederick was a velvet cutter employed by hat materials supplier Charles Clay & Son, of Waldeck Road. He went to France in June 1916. [Later official records give the date of death as either April 9th-12th or April 12th].
National Roll of the Great War. ALLEN R, Private 6th Bedfordshire Regiment
"He joined in January 1917, and after a brief training was drafted to France. Shortly after his arrival on this front he was killed in action at Vimy Ridge on April 20th, 1917, and was entitled to the General Service and Victory Medals. 63, Havelock Road, Luton, Bedfordshire."
Additional Information
Soldier's Effects register shows War Gratuity of £3 10s to Mother Ellen, sole legatee.
*1 www.worldwar1luton.com/individual/private-frederick-reginald-allen
Acknowledgments
Gareth Hughes
Gareth Hughes, Malcolm Lennox, www.worldwar1luton.com,
