Name
Fred Bone
1890
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
26/07/1917
27
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
39816
Bedfordshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LIJSSENTHOEK MILITARY CEMETERY
XVI. I. 3A.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial,
St John the Evangelist Church Memorial, Boxmoor,
GB Kent & Sons (Kent Brushes) Memorial, Apsley,
Not on the Redbourn memorials
Pre War
Fred Bone was born in 1890 in Redbourn, Herts the son of Harry and Elizabeth Bone, one of four children. On the 1891 Census the family were living at The Camp, Redbourn where his father was working as an agricultural labourer. They remained in Redbourn on the 1901 Census but later the same year moved to Hemel Hempstead and lived at 143 Marlowes. Fred attended George Street school, later moving to Apsley Boys School in January 1903. He left school in June 1903 when he was thirteen and worked for G B Kent & Sons, brushmakers of Apsley.
His sister Edith was a lodger with the family of George and Henrietta Bruce at 26 Weymouth St, Apsley End, Boxmoor on the 1911 Census and worked at the brush factory as a Tooth Brush Fashioner. Although unable to find Fred on the 1911 Census, he remained working as a brushmaker at G B Kent & Sons until he was called up in 1916.
He married Alice Lilian Lane at St John the Evangelist, in Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead on 14 October 1916 and they had a son, Frederick William born 16 July 1917, ten days before the death of his father. His widow lived at 210 London Road, Hemel Hempstead.
Wartime Service
He enlisted initially at Bedford on 6 May 1913 for four years in the Territorial Army and served as Private no. 2180 in the 1st Hertfordshire Regiment. He was then discharged on 8 August 1914, as medically unfit (reason unknown).
When the Military Service Act was passed in 1916, previously unfit men were then eligible for service and Fred was called up in the late summer and joined the 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment. He was sent to France in early 1917 and would have fought in the Battle of Arras and the First Battle of the Scarpe.
He was injured near Zillebeke when he was one of a party of 17 men who were knocked out by a shell near Bedford House. Six of them were killed outright, five died of their wounds and 6 were wounded. Fred died of his wounds on 26 July 1917 and is buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium.
Additional Information
His widow Alice received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £1 7s 0d. She also received a pension of 18s 9d a week from 14.2.18.
N.B. His name is listed as Frederick Bone on the St John the Evangelist Memorial at Boxmoor although his birth was registered as Fred Bone.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Gareth Hughes, Malcolm Lennox, www.hemelatwar.org., wwww.dacorumheritage.org.uk., www.hemelheroes.com
