Name
Frederick (Fred) Jarvis
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
135120
Army Service Corps
“W” Coy.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Pirton School Memorial
Biography
Frederick appears on the School War Memorial, confirming that he attended the school. He was working for Frank Burton before the war and lived in Andrew’s Cottages (the three cottages at the bottom of the High Street). Parish and census records listed three Frederick Jarvis’, although cross-referencing these with burial records originally suggested only one entry that could be correct. However, the release of the 1911 census revealed another possibility.
The first man was born on April 3rd 1886 to Edith Jarvis and his father is not named. He appears to have a brother or half-brother, Sidney John (b 1892), who died aged twenty months. Edith later married Herbert Butterfield, in 1898. Then in the 1901 census, Fred is recorded as living with his widowed grandfather William and working as a ploughboy and then in 1911, as still living with his grandfather and a farm labourer. Edith Butterfield is not recorded so had possibly moved away with her husband.
The second man identified was Fred Jarvis from Croydon, Surrey, fifteen in 1911. He was working as a farm labourer and boarding with Joseph Waldock in West Mill Cottage.
In the 1911 census, both men are recorded as Fred, so there is no clue from his name usage. It is therefore not possible to say with certainty which man served. The Fred that did is recorded in the Parish Magazine of September 1915 as enlisting during 1915 and serving in the 1st Bedfordshire Regiment (number 20165). The men identified above would have been twenty-nine and nineteen respectively, so it could be either. A newspaper cutting from July 1916 confirms his enlistment date as April 1915 and that he went to the Front in October. It also reports that Fred had recently been severely wounded in the head. The North Herts Mail of August 31st 1916 recorded that he was home on leave after convalescing in Hospital. He must have recovered reasonably well from that wound, since by 1918 he was recorded as Lance Corporal 135120, “W” Company, Army Service Corps (ASC). This may however indicate that he was no longer considered fit for the front line. His home address was given as 4 Andrew’s Cottages, the three cottages at the bottom of the High Street.
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission.
