Name
Frederick Reynolds (2)
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Biography
As explained in more detail in the biography for Frederick Reynold (1), the information available suggests that there were two Fred or Frederick Reynolds who served. Much of the information is confirmed as being for the Frederick Reynold (1), so it is more difficult to identify the Frederick who may have served with the Westminster Dragoons. Discounting the above Frederick Reynolds then, the parish and census records suggest two possible men.
The first was five in the 1891 census, so he was born in about 1886 or 1887. He was the grandson of Ann Reynolds, and would have been about twenty-three at the outbreak of war. The records are confusing, but Edgar Dawson married Elizabeth Jane Reynolds*1 in 1888 and the 1891 census records list them as living in the house belonging to Elizabeth’s mother, Ann. There are five grand children listed, including two Joseph Reynolds. They are Joseph Reynolds (b c1878), Joseph Reynolds (b c1881), Frederick Reynolds (b c1886), Reginald Dawson (b 1889) and Ethel Annie Dawson (b 1890). Frederick was actually the son of Ann’s son, also named Frederick and Lavinia Reynolds (née Pitts) and born in Rotherhythe.
Reginald and Ethel are confirmed as Edgar and Elizabeth’s children and then baptism and the 1911 census confirm their other children as Emily Almond (b 1891, d aged six weeks), Charles (b c1896), Bertie (b c1898), Kate (b c1900) and Harry (b c1905). The census also confirmed eight children, two of whom had died.
There are no children listed as Elizabeth’s in 1881, before she was married, but it is possible that Joseph Reynolds (the youngest) and Frederick Reynolds were also her children. However, this has not been proved and therefore it is not clear whether any of the children named are Frederick’s siblings or half siblings, nor who his parents were.
The second possible man was baptised on August 3rd 1873, the son of William and Sarah Reynolds. Baptism and census records identify eight children: Elizabeth (bapt 1862), Amos (bapt 1864), Fanny (b c1866), Mary Ann (b c1868), Alice (b 1870), Frederick (bapt 1873), Ruth (bapt 1876) and Charles (b c1885). Frederick would have been forty-one at the outbreak of war, which is only just young enough to have served. In 1898, he was listed as from Shilley Green, (near Hitchin, not far from Rush Green) when he married Ellen Catterill from Pirton.
Unfortunately it is not certain which, if either, of the above is the second Frederick Reynolds who served, if indeed one did, but the former is certainly the most likely.
*1 This was her maiden name. She is not the Elizabeth Reynolds identified as the mother of the first Frederick Reynolds as she and her husband are still listed in the 1911 census; therefore there are two Elizabeth Reynolds.
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission
