Name
Frederick Cain
1888
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
03/10/1917
29
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Gunner
890360
Royal Horse Artillery
14th Bde.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ZUYDCOOTE MILITARY CEMETERY
I. G. 24.
France
Headstone Inscription
UNTIL THE DAY BREAK AND THE SHADOWS FLEE AWAY
UK & Other Memorials
Harpenden Town Memorial, Church of St Nicholas Memorial, Harpenden, Wheathampstead Village Memorial, Not on the Batford memorials, Not on the Kimpton memorials
Pre War
Frederick Cain was born in Kimpton, Nr Hitchin, Herts in 1888 to Arthur Cain and Annie (nee Lawrence), and baptised on 22 April 1888 in Kimpton. He was one of thirteen children but three had died by 1911.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at Little Cutts, Wheathampstead, where his father was working as an agricultural labourer. They had moved to Pipers Lane, Wheathampstead by 1901 at which time his father was working as a shepherd on a farm, and moved again by 1911 to Newcombe Street, Harpenden when both Frederick and his father were working as jobbing gardeners. Brother William was working as a farm labourer, brother Percy was a dairy worker and brother Thomas a Post Office messenger with younger brothers Edward, Horace and Ernest at school.
Frederick married Kate Elsie Pearce in 1913 and lived at Lower Luton Road, Batford, Harpenden. They had two sons, Harold Frederick (born 26 Jul 1914) and Robert Arthur (born 29 November 1915). Frederick worked as a gardener at St George’s School, Harpenden prior to enlistment.
Wartime Service
Frederick volunteered in December 1914 and after training went to France in 1915 as Gunner 890360 with the Royal Horse Artillery.
He joined 14th Artillery Brigade RHA and served on the Somme and at Passchendaele, probably Polygon Wood (29 Oct – 3 Oct 1917). He died of wounds in Belgium on 3 October 1917 and is buried in Zuydcoote Military Cemetery, near Dunkirk, France.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £10 and pay owing of £5 16s 5d. She also received a pension of £1 2s 11d a week for herself and her two children.
Brother Thomas enlisted in 1st Herts, went to France on 31 Aug 1916, was transferred to 1/4 Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment on 10 Sep 1916 and was killed in action on 24 Sep 1916.
His widow, Mrs. Kate Cain, Lower Luton Rd., Harpenden, Herts., ordered his headstone inscription: "UNTIL THE DAY BREAK AND THE SHADOWS FLEE AWAY".
N.B. Frederick's name was added to the Wheathampstead Memorial in 2014.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper, Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, Mary Skinner, Harpenden & District Local History Society (www.harpenden-history.org.uk).
