Name
Frederick Reginald MacKenzie
27/12/1887
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
13/10/1914
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
8463
Bedfordshire Regiment
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star (with Clasp & Roses), British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LE TOURET MEMORIAL
Panel 10 and 11.
France
Headstone Inscription
He has no Headstone. He is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial in France to the missing.
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Cheshunt memorials,
Sheering Memorial Cross Sheering Essex
Pre War
Frederick Reginald Mackenzie was born in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, on 27th December 1887, son of Walter Mackenzie a, Journeyman Baker and Kate Mackenzie (nee Bath). One of eight children.
He was baptised in Cheshunt, on 4th March 1888, at the time the family were living in College Road, Cheshunt, Herts.
1891 Census records Frederick aged 4, living with his parent, four sisters and brother Walter (6) in, Sheering Street, Sheering, Essex.
1901 Census, Frederick (13), his parents, two brothers and sister Annie (10) are still living in Sheering Street, Sheering.
On the 12th March 1906, Frederick enlisted in Bedfordshire Regiment, issued with the service number 8463.
His mother Kate died in Sheering, Essex, in July 1907, aged 51.
1911 Census records Frederick aged 23, Single, a soldier serving with “B” Company, 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, stationed at Prospect Barracks in Bermuda, with the rank of Lance Corporal. His widower father, two sisters, Kate, Alice, brothers Walter and Sidney, were still living in the family home in Sheering Street, Sheering.
Wartime Service
At the outbreak of war Frederick was a serving soldier, serving with the 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, stationed at Mullingar, Ireland. The Battalion was mobilized for war, leaving Mullingar on 14th August 1914, by train for Belfast, where they embarked aboard the SS “Oronsay” for Le Havre, France, arriving in the late evening of 15th August 1914, disembarking on the morning of 16th August, where they marched to the Rest Camp which was at the top of the hill.
Frederick was Killed in Action just two months later on 13th October 1914, during the Battle of Le Bassee. (Battle of Le Bassee 10th Oct – 2nd Nov 1914). He has no known grave; he is commemorated on the CWGC Le Touret Memorial in France to the missing.
Additional Information
His effects of £6-7-2, pay owing and his war gratuity of £5, went to his father Walter Mackenzie.
The De Ruvigny Roll of Honour gives his date of death as 14th October 1914, not the 13th.
Acknowledgments
Stuart Osborne
Jonty Wild
