Frederick Southgate (1891 - 1915)
Brother of Walter Southgate and William Southgate. Frederick was one of four Bergholt men to join the Northamptonshire Regiment together, in August 1914. Three of the four men were all killed on the same day – the heaviest loss that East Bergholt would suffer on a single day, during the Great War.
- 58
- Died in the Great War
- 51.975256, 1.055757
Details
| Name: | Frederick Fayers Southgate |
| Service: | British Army |
| Unit: | 1st Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment |
| Regimental Number: | 12583 |
| Rank: | Private |
| Date of Death: | 9th May 1915 |
| Age: | 24 |
| Commemorated: | Panel 29, Le Touret Memorial, near Bethune, France |
Three East Bergholt families each lost three of their sons during the Great War. For one of those families – the Southgate family, from East End – this meant the loss of all three of their children.
Family Background and Early Life
Frederick Fayers Southgate was born at Upper Orwell Courts in Ipswich on 5th January 1891, the second son of Sarah Southgate who was at that time a Sack Mender for a Corn Merchant. His elder brother William was two when Frederick was born.
Sarah and her two sons later moved to Lawford, where she was employed as a Housekeeper. There, on 28th October 1896 she gave birth to a third son called Walter.
The following year, the family moved to Burnt Oak in East Bergholt. Frederick and his older brother started at the village school – which at that time was situated at Burnt Oak Corner, on 27th September. In Bergholt, Sarah was acting as a live-in Housekeeper for a 45 year old widower, Frederick Dorman, and his twenty two year old son, Henry, who both worked at the Xylonite factory in Brantham.
William, the eldest of Sarah’s sons, joined the Army in 1907, and was posted overseas shortly thereafter. By that time, Frederick Dorman – along with Sarah and her sons – had moved to East End. They lived for a time on Mission Lane, before later moving just around the corner to Rose Cottage, situated next to the “Dickie”. 1 Frederick Dorman and the Southgate family had moved to Rose Cottage by April 1911. The building still survives, though it is now just one residence rather than two as it was then.
Works at the Xylonite Factory
Frederick – as was the norm in those days – left school at the age of 13. By October 1907 he was working in the Polishing Department at the Xylonite works, much of the time involved with delivery. In this period it was quite usual for employees to work fifty and sixty hours a week, and Frederick was no exception.
In early 1913, Frederick’s mother Sarah married Frederick Dorman at the Register Office in Ipswich, and it seems very likely that Frederick and Walter both attended the ceremony.
At some point – seemingly before he joined the Army – Frederick became romantically involved with a Miss R Tuckwell. Unfortunately, we cannot be certain exactly who Miss Tuckwell was, though we do know that during the spring of 1915 she was living at The Laurels, in East Bergholt.
Joins the Army
On 27th August 1914, Frederick, in the company of his younger brother Walter, and two brothers from Burnt Oak – Andrew and Leslie Thurlow – volunteered to join the Northamptonshire Regiment at Colchester. 2 The exact nature of the relationship between the two Southgate brothers, and the Thurlow brothers can no longer be known for sure. However, it does seem certain that they were at least acquaintances of some years, and most likely friends: They were of similar ages, had attended the same school, and had all lived in the Burnt Oak part of East Bergholt at the same time. In addition, Walter, Leslie and Andrew all worked in the Slicing Shop at the Factory.
Leslie Thurlow was wounded during the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in March 1915, whilst serving with the 2nd Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment, but survived the War. He moved away from East Bergholt after the War and died in 1964 at the age of 67. This was less than a month after Great Britain had declared war on Germany – following the latter’s invasion of neutral Belgium.
The record of Frederick’s medical examination for the Army which took place at Colchester on 29th August 1914, states that he was 5 foot, 3 inches tall, weighed 111 pounds, had brown hair, brown eyes and a fresh complexion. Two days afterwards he was posted to the Regiment’s 3rd Battalion in southern England, with whom he commenced his basic training.
France
On 10th February 1915, Frederick disembarked at Le Havre, France, and within a few days joined the Northamptonshire Regiment’s 1st Battalion, who at that time were in Billets in Allouagne, near Bethune. The 1st was a Regular Army Battalion and had been in Belgium and France since August 1914.
Another East Bergholt lad also joined the Battalion at this time: Leonard Clark from Manningtree Road, who had joined up just a couple of days after Frederick and his brother.
For the next three months, during the periods that the Battalion was at the front, they usually spent four days in the trenches and then four days in Reserve, before rotating back into the trenches again. They manned various sectors during this period, all just to the north-east of Bethune.
Aubers Ridge – The Plan of Attack
In early May 1915, the British planned an attack to wrest control of the Aubers Ridge from the Germans and threaten the German supply lines. Though the Aubers Ridge is barely 20 metres in height, because of the flat, waterlogged nature of the ground surrounding it, this feature gave a tremendous advantage to the Germans who occupied it as they were able to overlook the British positions.
The British plan was for a two pronged attack: The 2400 yard wide Southern assault, consisted of troops from the 1st Division along with the Meerut Division of the Indian Corps. The Northern prong of the attack started approximately 31/4 miles north (towards Armentieres), on an assault front of 1500 yards, and was made up of troops from the 8th Division.
The 1st Northamptons were to attack at the extreme right of the stronger, Southern assault, on the Rue du Bois near the village of Richebourg L’Avoue.
Originally planned to commence on 8th May 1915, the offensive was postponed by one day – the attacks due to commence just after dawn.
At 8 p.m. on 8th May 1915, the 1st Northamptons consisting of 26 officers and 750 men, left their Billets in nearby Le Touret, to take up positions for the attack the next morning.
9th May 1915 – The Battle of Aubers Ridge
In order to disable the German defences which had been strengthened over recent weeks, a short 40 minute artillery bombardment was planned to cut the barbed wire immediately in front of the enemy front line and pound the trenches themselves.
On the morning of the 9th, ten minutes before the artillery bombardment ended, the 1st Northamptons B and D companies left the British trenches and advanced to within 100 yards of the German parapet, waiting there ready to attack.
When the British bombardment ceased at 5.40 a.m., the men of the two leading companies rushed to the attack; at the same time those from the two Support companies left the British trenches. A group of about 20 men and one officer managed to reach a gap in the German wire, but were all shot. Heavy German rifle and machine gun fire meant that the Northamptons were mown down before they could get near the enemy trenches.
The Germans then opened fire with their artillery on the Battalion’s trenches, which effectively meant that the attackers could not advance or retire. They were stuck out in No Man’s Land between the opposing trenches, and under heavy fire. It was only when darkness arrived, that the survivors were able to crawl back to the British trenches, most having lain out there for 14 1/2 hours.
The Aftermath and Human Cost
The attacks on 9th May which are now officially called the Battle of Aubers Ridge, were a disaster for the British: This was largely because their artillery bombardment was insufficient for its purpose and had left the German defences intact. No ground was taken, and German artillery, rifle and machine gun fire inflicted heavy losses on the attackers. The British suffered more than 11,000 casualties on that one day, most before the attacking troops even got close to the German lines.
The 1st Northamptons suffered the highest casualties out of any of the units involved in the Southern attack, losing approximately 550 officers and men – 70% of those involved – a large proportion of whom had been killed.
Missing
One of those listed as Missing was Frederick. It took the Army a whole month to advise his family of this fact.
This delay in notification – without any other news – understandably caused much angst and distress to Frederick’s family and loved ones. This is painfully evident in a heartfelt letter that Miss Tuckwell wrote to the Army asking if they could “tell me anything about my young man as both his parents and myself are very much upset about him as it is over a month since I heard from him”.
By a cruel coincidence, there had been a similar delay in the Army notifying Sarah that Walter Southgate was Missing as well: Walter’s Battalion – the 2nd Northamptons – had also been involved in the attacks on 9th May 1915. They formed the extreme right of the Northern prong of the attack and had also suffered heavy losses, including both Walter and Andrew Thurlow who were Missing.
It took over three months for the Army to establish that Frederick had been killed in action on 9th May 1915 – official notification of this being sent to the family on 29th September 1915.
Postscript
Frederick has no known grave. He is officially commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial to the Missing, which is located approximately two miles from where Frederick was killed.
It wasn’t until October 1916, that the Army notified Sarah that her youngest son Walter, was officially accepted as “having died on or since 9th May 1915”.3 Walter Southgate was just 18 years old when he was killed.
In October 1916, Andrew Thurlow’s Mother was informed by the Army that he was now officially accespted as having “died on or since 9th May 1915”.
Neither Walter Southgate nor Andrew Thurlow have a known grave. Both are commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing, located south of Ieper (Ypres) in Belgium. Shortly before, Sarah had been informed that her eldest son William, had died on Active Service in Mesopotamia. 4 William Southgate, served as a Sergeant in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. He was later attached to the Indian Telegraph Department, as part of the Persian Gulf Expeditionary Force. William died on 1st July 1916, in Basra, Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). He has no known grave and is officially commemorated on the Basra Memorial to the Missing.
Of the two pairs of brothers who had joined the Northamptonshire Regiment at Colchester on 27th August 1914, Frederick, his younger brother Walter and Andrew Thurlow were all killed in the attacks on 9th May 1915. Though we no longer have conclusive proof, it is almost certain that in those same attacks, Leonard Clark – serving in the same Battalion as Frederick – was severely wounded, and lost his left leg. 5 Leonard Clark survived the War. After returning to his home village, he spent the rest of his working life as East Bergholt’s Shoemaker. He later married and became a father and grandfather. Leonard would serve his country again in the Second World War, as a member of East Bergholt’s Home Guard Platoon. He died in 1965, at the age of 69 and is buried the village Cemetery. It was the heaviest loss that East Bergholt would suffer on a single day, during the Great War.
Sarah never recovered from the death of her three sons.
After the death of Frederick Dorman in 1922, Sarah moved away from East Bergholt. She died in Ipswich in 1948.
Acknowledgements
I am very grateful for the kind assistance given to me by Mr W.F. Nixon. Wally – as he is known to most people – was named after his Mother’s cousins, Walter and Frederick Southgate. Wally himself served in the 81st Anti-Tank Regiment of the Royal Artillery, in North Africa and Italy during the Second World War.
Copyright © Mark Ashmore, 2024
- 58
- Died in the Great War
- 51.975256, 1.055757
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