Name
Frederick William Bonfield (*1)
1891
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
17/02/1917
26
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
61927
Royal Fusiliers *2
23rd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
REGINA TRENCH CEMETERY, GRANDCOURT
VII.B.6
France
Headstone Inscription
No Report
UK & Other Memorials
Brent Pelham Village Memorial, Diocese - Book of Remembrance, St Albans Cathedral, St Albans, Diocese of St Albans - ROH, St Albans Cathedral, St Albans, Not on the Letchworth memorials
Pre War
Frederick William Bonfield was born in Noden, Cambs., son of Wilfred Benjamin Bonfield, a shepherd and Lizzie (nee Moule). His birth was registered in Q1 1891 at Royston, and he was baptized at Kelshall on 3 May 1891.
The 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 Frederick appears, aged 10, at his maternal grand parents’ (William & Eliza Moule) home in Kelshall.
In the 1911 census, he is a boarder with the Carter family at Knight’s Hill, Westmill, Buntingford, 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
No Service Record was found but Medal Rolls Index card for Frederick shows he was initially enlisted as a private in the East Surrey Regiment, (service no. 2751) transferring later to the Royal Fusiliers as private 61927 in the 23rd (Service) Battalion (1st Sportsmen’s) under command of 99th Brigade, 33rd Division.
The Battalion went to France landing at Boulogne in Nov 1915. On 25 Nov 1915 : transferred with Brigade to 2nd Division. In 1917 the battalion took part in Operations on the Ancre (Feb 1917). Frederick was killed in Action on 17 Feb 1917 when the Battalion were included in the Attack on the Regina Trench. (The Regina Trench cemetery contains 286 men who died on 17th February 1916, of whom 121 were from the Royal Fusiliers.)
Additional Information
War Gratuity of £11 and arrears of £12 4s 5d was paid to his mother Amy.
*1 Incorrectly recorded as ‘Bondfield’ on the Brent Pelham memorial. No enlistment or service records appear to survive.
*2 Believed more correctly, Royal Fusiliers, 23rd (City of London Regiment) Bn.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Dr Stephen Bratt
