Frederick William Manchester

Rank 
Private
Regiment 
London Regiment
Date of death 
28 January 1916
Age of death 
22
Address 
84 Norfolk Road
Seven Kings
Ilford
IG3 8LJ
Address source 
1911 Census
Cemetery / Memorial 
France
Biography 

Frederick was born in Poplar on 14th November 1894 and he was baptised when just one day old. He attended Ilford County High School between 16th September 1907 and 28th July 1910. He had previously been a pupil at Downshall Elementary School, in Ilford.

His father, also Frederick, was a secretary in a company that imported ostrich feathers. His mother was Edith and he had one brother and five sisters. The family lived at 85 Pembroke Road, Seven Kings for most of Frederick’s youth.

When he left school, Frederick worked as a clerk for the Port of London Authority.

In 1914, the school magazine, Chronicles, it was noted that Frederick had joined the ‘4th East Kent.’ The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records give his date of death as 28th January 1916. He was aged 22. At the time, he was serving with the 23rd Battalion of the London Regiment (service number 2358). He was buried in the Noeux-Les-Mines Communal Cemetery.  

The Spring 1916 edition of Chronicles reported that;

‘Pte. F. Manchester joined the 2/23rd London Regiment in August, 1914. Finding this was a home service unit, he immediately transferred to the 1/23rd. He left England in March, 1915, and was wounded at Givenchy in May. A good shot even as a schoolboy, he was first a sniper and afterwards a machine gunner. He had only returned a week from his leave when he was killed at Loos on the 28th January 1916. A rifle-grenade burst among the gun-crew, killing two and wounding the other four. He lies in the cemetery of Noeux-les-Mines. Thus another Old Boy has played his part to the end.’

Research by Andrew Emeny, History Teacher at ICHS

Sources:

Ancestry.com

ICHS school records and magazines

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Note

Ilford County High School started life as the Park Higher Grade School in 1901 in Balfour Road, Ilford. It was renamed Ilford County High School (or initially County High School, Ilford) in the years after the school’s management was transferred from Ilford School Board to Essex Education Committee in 1904.