Pte 49056 Frederick Fell

• Age: 30
• From: Market Rasen
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 20th Btn
• K.I.A Thursday 2nd August 1917
• Commemorated at: Menin Gate Memorial
  Panel Ref: Panel 4 & 6

Frederick Fell was born in the fourth quarter of 1886 in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, the son of Henry Crossland Fell and his wife Eliza Ann (nee Stephenson).  His parents were both born in Lincolnshire and married in Caistor, Lincolnshire in 1875.  They had five sons: William, Herbert, Harold, Frederick, and Frank.  His father was a railway clerk and station master, as was his grandfather, William Fell.

In 1891 his father is the station master at Hooton Road, Swinton in Yorkshire (north of Rotherham). The family lives on the premises, his father, Henry Crossland is 38 years of age and was born in Gainsborough, his mother, Eliza Ann is 35 years of age and was born in Market Rasen as were all of her children, five of whom are declared in the houshold; William Henry, aged 15, is a railway clerk, Herbert Crossland is 11, Harold Stevenson is 9, Frederick is 4 and Frank Vincent is 7 months old. Also declared is a domestic servant, Rose Vickers aged 16. 

His father died at the age of 45 in Chester in 1896.

By 1901 his widowed mother has moved to 16 Richmond Road, Chorlton cum Hardy, Lancashire. She is aged 45. She has six children in the household; William H. is a 25 year old railway clerk, Beatrice A. is 24, Hervert C. is a 21 year old railway clerk, Harold S. is a 19 year old railway clerk, Frederick is 14 and Frank V. is 10.

His mother died in 1906, age 50.

In 1911 Frederick is boarding at 45 Kirby Road in Leicester, with Frank Draycott, a railway clerk, and his family.  Frederick is 24, single, also employed as a railway clerk.

When he was 26, Frederick married Hannah Boswell on 27^th January 1913 in Barrow-upon-Humber in Lincolnshire (Hannah’s place of residence).  They returned to Chorlton, where their daughter Kathleen Mabel was born on 10th February 1914.

The details of Frederick’s military service are not known as his service record has not survived.  He enlisted in Ashton-under-Lyne near Manchester and was serving as Private 49056, in the 20^th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment, when he was killed in action at the Third Battle of Ypres, also known as Passchendaele, on 02^nd August 1917.

The 20th Battalion diary gives details of the circumstances that the Battalion found themselves in during the early phases of the 3rd Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele). Having taken part in the initial fighting of 31st July 1917 there is a general write up in relation to the period 01st -08th August and specifics solely from the 03rd August. As such it is impossible to say exactly how each of the men who fell on 01st or 2nd August met their death.

20^th Battalion Diary 01^st August – 08^th August

The Battalion continued to hold the position taken up on the morning of 31^st July. After the first day the weather was very wet and the going very difficult, but the men’s spirits remained wonderfully good. From time to time there was very heavy enemy shelling and in addition to this machine guns and snipers were very active. The work of communication was extremely difficult and the wires to Companies and to Battalions on our flanks were repeatedly cut and were only kept going by most excellent work by our linesmen, who suffered very heavy casualties as also did the runners. 

His widow placed a notice in the Manchester Evening News on 30^th August 1917:  

“Killed in action on August 2, 1917, Lance-corporal Frederick Fell, of the King’s Liverpool Regiment.  Deeply mourned by his WIFE and little DAUGHTER. 16 Hartley Street, Levenshulme.” [CWGC shows Frederick’s rank as Private.]

Frederick was reported killed in the Weekly Casualty List on 28th September 1917

His widow Hannah returned to Lincolnshire and settled in New Holland, a village across the Humber from Hull, living at Normanby Villa, Peploe Lane; she received a pension of 18/9d a week for herself and child.

Probate records for 1917 show: 

FELL Frederick of 16 Hartley Street, Levenshulme, Manchester, a Private in the 20th Battalion Liverpool Regiment, died 02 August 1917 in France while in actual military service. Probate Manchester 6 September to Hannah Fell widow. Effects £88.

Frederick has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypre, Belgium.

The site of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men who passed through it on their way to the battlefields. It commemorates casualties from the forces of Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and United Kingdom who died in the Salient. In the case of United Kingdom casualties, only those prior 16 August 1917 (with some exceptions). United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after that date are named on the memorial at Tyne Cot, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war. New Zealand casualties that died prior to 16 August 1917 are commemorated on memorials at Buttes New British Cemetery and Messines Ridge British Cemetery.

The YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL now bears the names of more than 54,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield with sculpture by Sir William Reid-Dick, was unveiled by Lord Plumer on 24 July 1927.

In 1939 Hannah, now 54, and Kathleen, 25, are still living at 16 Peploe Lane.  Kathleen is single, a shorthand typist at a chemical works.  Hannah never remarried and died in 1977.  Kathleen married and had three children; she lived until 2005, and died in Lincolnshire at the age of 91.

The National Railway Museum records that Frederick was employed by Great Central Railway in the Accounts Department at Dukinfield.

Frederick is commemorated on the Men of New Holland Memorial.