We remember Lance Corporal Frederick Webb of the 1st Bttn. The Northamptonshire Regiment who was killed in action on 11th January 1916 aged 27. Fred Webb’s great grandfather, grandfather and father were all born in Moreton in the Marsh in Gloucestershire. It was his father who moved, via Chipping Camden, to Weedon through his employment as a postman. He lived with his family at 13 West Street in the village. Fred lodged at the Barracks where he worked as a barman. He would have known Alfred Leaversuch (six years his junior) as the Leaversuch family also lived there with Alfred’s father employed as the Barrack Room Warden. Alfred also went on to lose his life in the Great War. Fred arrived in France on May 26th 1915 probably as a draft of reinforcements to make up the battalion’s losses in the disastrous Battle of Aubers where it lost over five hundred men. The battalion moved in early january 1916 to front line trenches close to the French mining town of Loos, the site of a major battle the previous year. In a series of actions designed to take an objective known as the ‘Chalk Pit’, the British artillery bombarded the area, provoking immediate retaliation by the Germans. Trench repairs were carried out under a good deal of mortaring which resulted in six men being killed and twelve wounded. Sadly, Fred was one of the dead and is remembered on the Loos Memorial. He is also remembered on the village War Memorial, the Memorial Plaque in St Peter’s Church and also on the Oddfellows’ Memorial Plaque in the Congregational Church schoolroom.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 09:24:31 +0000
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