Name
Frederick Arthur (P) French (*1)
12 Nov 1891
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
17/07/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
9521
East Yorkshire Regiment
6th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
NO MAN'S COT CEMETERY
B. 24.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
No Report
UK & Other Memorials
Tring Town Memorial,
St Peter & St Paul Church Roll of Honour, Tring
Pre War
Arthur Frederick French was born in Tring on 12 Nov 1890 (baptised 25 Jan 1896) to Thomas French, labourer, and Mary Ann (Annie nee Simpson).
On the 1891 the family of parents, father Thomas was a labourer for corn merchant, George (coal merchants labourer, born 1874), James (farm boy, born 1887), Minnie (stepdaughter, born 1881), Thomas (born 1884), Louisa (born 1889) and Arthur were living at Albion Place, Akeman Street, Tring.
On the 1901 census the family of parents, father Thomas was a cowman (dairy), Louisa, Frederick (Arthur), Ernest (born 1894), Herbert (born 1896) and Elizabeth (born 1899) were living at 6, Alma Place, Tring.
Arthur’s father died in 1910.
Arthur enlisted in the East Yorkshire Regiment as Private 9521, about Apr/May 1910 (serial 9425 was issued on 14 Mar). No Service Record was found so his service and postings are unknown.
On the 1911 Census his mother and family of Ernest (labourer), Herbert (butcher’s assistant), Elizabeth, William (born 1901) and Henry (born 1904) were living at 6, Alma Place, Tring.
The Soldiers Died In The Great War (SDITGW) database records that he was born in Tring, Herts and was living there when he enlisted in Berkhamsted.
Wartime Service
Arthur or Frederick (as he seems to have been known to the Army) was still serving as a Regular soldier on the outbreak of the Great War and was posted into the 6th (Service) Battalion (Pioneers) probably on its formation in Beverley on 27 Aug 1914. It was attached to 32 Brigade, 11th (Northern) Division.
Private Arthur French appears to have had an eventful military career. Other than his pre-war service His Battalion were landed at Gallipoli on 7 Aug 1915 (Lala Baba, Suvla Bay) and in Egypt after the evacuation from the peninsula being transferred to (Suez canal defences)before landing in France (Marseilles) in July 1916. The Battalion then took part in Battles of the Somme at Flers-Courcelette, Thiepval and operations on the Ancre (11 Jan-13 Mar 1917). They deployed to the Ypres Sector for the Battle of Messines (7-14 Jun 1917). Arthur was killed in action on 17 Jul 1917.
This brief obituary from the Parish Magazine : “Arthur Frederick French, Private East Yorks Regt, was killed by a shell ‘somewhere in France’ on September 17th, 1917. He was buried behind the lines. He joined the Army as far back as 1910 and was in India for four years. At the outbreak of war he was sent to Egypt and fought in Gallipoli. He finally went to France in May 1915.”
Additional Information
*1 CWGC lists P French, SDITGW lists Frederick Arthur French, both share date of death, battalion etc.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Jonty Wild
