Name
Frederick George Groves
1888
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/10/1917
29
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
265789
Hertfordshire Regiment
1st/1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
GODEWAERSVELDE BRITISH CEMETERY
I. L. 3.
France
Headstone Inscription
HE DIED A HERO'S DEATH
UK & Other Memorials
Berkhamsted Town Memorial, St Peter's Church Memorial, Berkhamsted, All Saints Church Memorial, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire Regimental Memorial, All Saints Church, Hertford, John Dickinson & Co Memorial, Apsley Mills, Apsley
Pre War
Frederick George Groves was born in 1888 in Berkhamsted, Herts, the son and eldest child of George and Ellen Groves (nee Rangecroft) and baptised on 4 April 1888 at Great Berkhamsted. He was one of five children although one died in infancy.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at Cross Oak Road, Berkhamsted where his father was working as a sawyer's labourer. They remained there in 1901 but had moved to 5 Charles Street, Berkhamsted in 1911 at which time Frederick was working as a ledger clerk.
Wartime Service
Frederick enlisted in Hertford and joined the Hertfordshire Regiment. He served in France from 21 January 1915 and the war diary records "a draft of 2 Officers and 195 OR's' arriving on 21 January 1915 to join the Regiment in the field near Givenchy.
He would have seen action at the Battle of Loos in September 1915, the Battles of the Somme in 1916, including Ancre Heights in October and the Battle of the Ancre in November, Battles of Ypres 1917, including the Battles of Pilkem in July, Langemarck in August, and Menin Road and Polygon Wood in September 1917.
He died on 1 October 1917 from of wounds received in action, aged 29, and is buried in Godewaersvelde British Cemetery, France. (near the Belgian border)
Additional Information
His father received a war gratuity of £13 10s and pay owing of £8 17s 3d. His mother received a pension of 4 shillings a week.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.bedfordregiment.reg,.uk/Hertsrgt
