Fred when he worked for the railways

Fred WW1

Fred far right during training at Basingstoke

Fred was born 13 or 14 March 1893, His birth cert says 13th but written in the family bible it says 14th. Fred was just Fred not even Frederick, his brother and two sisters all had two christian names but Fred was Fred. He was the 3rd and last child of William Masters and Clara Taylor and was born in Great Rissington, Gloucestershire.

Fred was an agricultural labourer until he went to work in Birmingham as a carman, he lived at 9 Ferndale George Street West Birmingham and was a member of the salvation army.

How and why Fred enlisted at Bodmin I don't know but he enlisted into The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry on 5 Sept 1914 in the regular army and was posted to the depot. 18 Sept 1914 transferred to the Irish Fusiliers and posted to the 5th battalion, 1st December 1915 he was transferred to the Army Cyclist Corps and posted to the 10th divisional company. January was  spent at Dublin barracks and February at Curragh field training. During May they were at Basingstoke and on 28/29 May the King visited, 1 June  Field Marshall Earl Kitchener inspected the division at Hackwood Park, Lord Curzon's park at Basingstoke. On the 27 June 1915 they received orders for service in Gallipoli and they embarked at Liverpool on 9th July heading for the Island of Lemnos.

14th August 1915 arrived Gallipoli 31st August 1915 admitted to field hospital with shrapnel in arm and leg. He survived 17 days in Gallipoli, so many were not so lucky.

29 October he was invalided to England on board "Asturias" he arrived 8 November and was admitted to the 2nd Western general hospital in Manchester. On his discharge from hospital he went to work as a Railway truck number collector, which was something to do with getting the freight carriages in the correct place, and lived at Crab Tree Road, Brookfield. 6 June 1916 he was discharged from the army for ceasing to fulfil army medical requirements. Fred died 26 September 1916 in the infirmary Selly Oak from acute pneumonia and cardiac failure. Fred is buried in a grave at Great Rissington next to his mother, father and sister Beatrice. Fred's grave is provided and maintained by the commonwealth war graves commission.

_________________________________________________________