Name
Frederick Gordon Vercoe
27 November 1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
28/04/1919
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment)
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
POONA (ST. SEPULCHRE'S) CEMETERY
Grave 1649.
India
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
John Dickinson & Co Memorial, Apsley Mills, Apsley,
Family grave, Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted,
Not on the Berkhamsted memorials
Pre War
Frederick Gordon Vercoe was born in Berkhamsted on 27 November 1893, the son of Henry John and Mary Vercoe, one of nine children.
On the 1901 Census the family were living at the Black Horse, High Street, Great Berkhamsted, where his father was the Publican and a Warehouseman. Frederick attended Berkhamsted School.
By the 1911 Census they had moved to 10 Chapel Street, Berkhamsted and his father was a Foreman at Cooper's Chemical Works, whilst Frederick was working as a Clerk in the Paper Mills. (John Dickinson & Co).
Wartime Service
He initially enlisted into the London Regiment on 4 September 1914 and left Southampton on 23 December 1914, arriving in Malta on 1 January 1915, and from there to Port Sudan.
He was transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps (reg. no. 34/186279) on 17 April 1915 and based in Khartoum working as a clerk. He remained in Egypt until 17 April 1916 and was mentioned in dispatches on 20 June 1916. He left the RASC when he obtained a commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal West Kent Regiment on 2 June 1917.
In late September 1917 he was ill in hospital , but after surgery and long convalescence, he returned to duty and was based in Poona, India.
He drowned while sailing in India on 28 April 1919 and is buried in Poona (St Sepulchre's) Cemetery, India.
Additional Information
His father received two war gratuities totalling £113 13s.
N.B. Some records state his regiment was Royal West Surrey. John Dickinson & Co memorial gives Regt as Royal West Kent.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, www.rectorylanecemetery.org.uk, hemelatwar.org.
