Name
Fred Halsey
1880
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
10/08/1917
37
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
Bedfordshire Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HOOGE CRATER CEMETERY
V. B. 3.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
FATHER IN THY GRACIOUS KEEPING LEAVE WE NOW THY SERVANT SLEEPING
UK & Other Memorials
Holy Trinity Church Wall Memorial, Potten End
Pre War
Frederick Halsey was born in Potten End, nr Berkhamsted in 1880, the son of David and Mary Ann Halse and one of eight children. On the 1881 Census the family were living at Water End, Great Gaddesden, where his father was working as a General Labourer and by 1891 they had moved to Frithsden Farm.
On the 1901 Census, although the family were still living at Frithsden, Frederick was not living with them and had probably already enlisted as a soldier with the Bedfordshire Regiment.
He married Esther Proctor in early 1901 in Bedford and lived at 7 Wellington Street, Bedford
Wartime Service
He enlisted into the Bedfordshire Regiment prior to the First World War and served as a Private (reg. no. 6756) in the 2nd Battalion during the 2nd Anglo-Boer War. As a serving soldier at the outbreak of the First World War he was sent to France on 16 August 1914 and served as Company Quartermaster Sergeant, 1st Battalion. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on 24 July 1917 in the 7th Battalion. Sadly he was killed in action less than three weeks later, during the assault on Glencourse Wood. He was posted missing during action on 10 August but his body was later found and he was buried in the Hooge Crater Cemetery.
His service record is held at The National Archives, reference WO339/122616
Additional Information
His mother, Mrs M A Halsey, 3 Frithesden, Nr Hemel Hempstead, Herts., ordered his headstone inscription: "FATHER IN THY GRACIOUS KEEPING LEAVE WE NOW THY SERVANT SLEEPING". His widow received pay owing and war gratuity totalling £197 0s 1d. Probate was granted in Northampton on 26 September 1918 to Esther Ann Halsey widow with effects of £7027 15s 6d. Brother of Lance Corporal Horace Halsey who also served with the 7th & 1st Battalions of the Bedfordshire Regiment, but who survived the war.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, dacorumheritage.org.uk, hemelatwar.org., littlegaddesdenchurch.org.uk. www.bedfordregiment.org.uk.,
