Name
Frederick Robert Groom
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
03/11/1916
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
15551
Royal Sussex Regiment
“B” Company 11th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BOIS-GUILLAUME COMMUNAL CEMETERY
II. B. 8A
France
UK & Other Memorials
Croxley Green Village Memorial, Croxley Green
All Saints' Church Shrine, Croxley Green
Rickmansworth Urban District Memorial
Pre War
In 1911 Frederick’s parents, Robert and Sarah Groom, and their two sons lived at 3 Yorke Rd. Croxley Green. Both Frederick and his father worked at Croxley Mills although Frederick is not listed on the Dickinson memorial. Frederick’s birth was registered in the fourth quarter of 1894 in the Watford District. The census records both Frederick and his father as being born in Croxley Green.
Recorded as enlisting in Hertford.
Wartime Service
Frederick Robert Groom G/15551, Private, ‘B’ Coy, 11th Sussex Regiment, formerly 3773, 2/1st Hertfordshire Regiment.
When he died his battalion was in action at the battle of the Ancre Heights during the Somme offensive. On 3rd November the Battalion marched back to Senlis but no casualties were reported and none had been reported on the previous day. It is likely he was wounded previously.
He died in No 8 RAMC General Hospital at rue du Bois-Guillaume, Rouen. On 3 September the battalion succeeded in entering the enemy's front line near Hamel and then on 21 October they took part in the capture of Stuff Redoubt near Thiepval. The fighting was heavy and during each of those attacks they suffered almost 300 casualties (about a third of the battalion's strength). Frederick joined up in 1914.
The Army paid his father £3 6s 1d and a gratuity of £9.
Acknowledgments
Malcolm Lennox, Tanya Britton, Brian Thomson, Croxley Green in the First World War Rickmansworth Historical Society 2014
