Name
Frederick George Taylor
16 January 1884
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
15/09/1916
34
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
22080
Bedfordshire Regiment
8th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 2 C.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Leverstock Green Village Memorial,
Not on the Boxmoor memorials,
Not on the Hemel Hempstead memorials
Pre War
Frederick George Taylor was born on 16 January 1884 in Leverstock Green, nr. Hemel Hempstead, Herts, the son of George and Elizabeth Taylor, and baptised at Leverstock Green on 12 July 1885. His mother was a widow when she married George Taylor in Leverstock Green in 1881 and already had three children.
On the 1891 and 1901 Censuses the family were living at Bennetts End, nr Leverstock Green, where his father was working as a general labourer and in 1901 Frederick was working as an agricultural labourer.
His sister Elizabeth died in 1902 at only 20 years old and his mother died in 1905.
He married Kate Purton in Northchurch, Herts in 1906 and by the 1911 Census, they were living at Westwick Row, Leverstock Green with their two children Gladys and Phyllis and he was working as a farm labourer. They later had a son Frederick Edward in 1913 and daughter Florence in 1914.
His widow's address on pension records was given as 7 St John's Road, Boxmoor, Herts.
Wartime Service
Frederick enlisted in Watford in June 1915 and served with the 8th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment and was posted to France in early 1916 after training in Woking.
He saw action in the trenches near Ypres, then moved to Thiepval on the Somme by August and was in preparation for an assault on High Wood. He was killed in action during the Battle of Flers-Courcette (Battle of the Somme). His death was presumed on or since 15 September 1916, aged 34. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
The battalion suffered very severe casualties and Frederick was among more than 100 from the 8th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment who died that day and are named on the Thiepval Memorial. Several more are buried in nearby cemeteries.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £5 and pay owing of £2 19s 6d. She also received a pension of £1 6s 3d a week for herself and her children.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, google.com/site/leverstockgreenwarmemorial, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroes.com.
