Name
Frederick William Bonfield
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
17/02/1918
26
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
61927
Royal Fusiliers *1
23rd (County of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
REGINA TRENCH CEMETERY, GRANDCOURT
VII.B.6
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Brent Pelham Village Memorial, Not on the Letchworth memorials
Pre War
Born Noden, Cambs., son of Wilfred Benjamin Bonfield and Lizzie (nee Moule). Birth registered in Q1 1891 at Royston, and baptized at Kelshall on 3rd May 1891. 1891 census shows Frederick William, aged 3 weeks, living with parents in Guilden Morden, Cambs.
His mother Lizzie died 1896, and in the 1901 census he appears, aged 10, at his maternal grandparent’s home in Kelshall. In the 1911 census, he is boarding at Knight’s Hill, Westmill, aged 20, and working as a groom, presumably at Brent Pelham, though SDITGW records him living in Letchworth when he enlisted in Bishops Stortford.
Wartime Service
Medal Rolls Index card shows he was initially enlisted as a private in the East Surrey Regiment, (service no. 2751) transferring later to the Royal Fusiliers. Awarded British and Victory medals.
Enlisted at Bishops Stortford (SDITGW). Killed in action while serving in the 23rd battalion Royal Fusiliers. The Regina Trench cemetery contains 286 men who died on 17th February 1916, of whom 121 were from the Royal Fusiliers.
Additional Information
Incorrectly recorded as ‘Bondfield’ on the Brent Pelham memorial. No enlistment or service records appear to survive.
*1 Believed more correctly, (County of London) Bn. London Regiment.
Acknowledgments
Dr Stephen Bratt
