Alcock Fred

ALCOCK, FRED (“Freddie”)

		Source
		CWGC	SDGW	Uttoxeter Advertiser	Other
Parents	John and Wilhelmina Alcock, of 6, New Street, Uttoxeter	Yes			8b, 9
Parents	The Picknalls, Uttoxeter			5
Where born	Uttoxeter				8b, 9
When born	About 1897				8b
When born	19 July 1896			Implied from 7
Address	22 The Picknalls, Uttoxeter			1
Address	New Street, Uttoxeter				9
Spouse
Children
Employment Before Joining up	Clerk at Messrs. W.G. Bagshaw and Sons			6	9
Where Enlisted	Uttoxeter		Yes	6	9
Regiment	North Staffordshire (Prince of Wales’s)	Yes	Yes	3 6	9
Unit	1st/6th Bn	Yes	Yes
	1st/6th (T.F.) Bn				9
	6th Bn			3 6
	“B” Company				2
Rank	Private	Yes	Yes	3 4 5 6 7	2 9
Service Number	2635	Yes
Service Number	2365 (2635 crossed out)				2
Date of Death	26 July 1915
Date of Death	27 July 1915 (Wrong)			1
Age at time of death	19	Yes		6 7
Where Killed or died	France/Flanders - Ypres salient (Hill 60)			1	2
	Near Hill 60			4
	Belgium			3 4 5
How he died	Killed in Action		Yes	3 4 5 6	9
How he died	Shor through the heart by a sniper			6
Location of Grave or Memorial	Blauwepoort Farm Cemetery - Grave D20
Awards

Photograph with kind permission of the Uttoxeter Advertiser

Fred Alcock’s obituary in the Uttoxeter Advertiser said that he was a great favourite with his regimental comrades, just as he was with his friends in Uttoxeter. His bright and cheerful disposition and sunny personality won him many friends, and the intelligent interest he showed in carrying out his duties at Messrs. Bagshaw and Sons made people believe that he would have a good career ahead of him.

He joined up with his brother Albert Harry in August 1914 at a big recruiting rally held in the Town Hall. They had served together in the same company since they had joined-up and fought side-by-side in the same trenches. They were not together, however, when Fred was shot, because Harry just happened to be engaged in the rear at the time.

On the 29th August 1914 Fred left Uttoxeter Station with the recruits for ‘G’ Company of the 1st/6th Battalion of the North Staffordshire Regiment.

Fred went to France on the 5th of March 1915.

His obituary in the Uttoxeter Advertiser quoted from a letter sent by Provost Sergeant Martin as follows:

“This morning (July 26), at 11, Fred Alcock was killed. He was shot through the heart died at once. We buried him at 1 o’clock, just at the back of where we are staying, at what we call the ‘ration dump’. They only allow a few to be there in case the Germans find out and shell it.”

Sergeant Martin went on to say that the Reverend Paul Ashby performed the burial service, and Fred Alcock’s soldier comrades made a cross of cornflowers, which they laid across his body.

In describing the ceremony, Provost Sergeant Martin said,

“There was no pomp and circumstance - no volleys of blanks - his requiem was the roar of big guns and the scream of shells. He was one of the best lads in the regiment and was buried as he died - like a soldier.

By coincidence, he had been appointed as orderly to one of the officers, who was wounded on the same day as Fred was killed.

The Uttoxeter Advertiser also published an extract from a letter which his friend, Corporal W. Lunn, also of Uttoxeter, wrote to a friend. In it he said the following:

“I must say I feel a bit fall, for I have some rather sad news to impart to you. Freddie Alcock has gone under. I was going to a spring for water for breakfast when some stretcher-bearers came along from the trenches occupied by the Uttoxeter boys, my old company. Of course, I inquired who it was, and they told me it was Freddie Alcock. I felt quite upset, for I was fond of the lad, and we had often talked together when I was in B Company. I could not let him pass without a last look at him, so I lifted his coat, and there he lay quite peacefully in his last sleep. I felt unmanned for a minute or so, and I must confess to a tear or two. He was a lad with a noble nature. I intend to find out the exact spot he is buried, and if possible to draw a plan, in the hope that it will be of some use. It is God’s will.”

The Uttoxeter Advertiser identified a coincidence related to the number 19. Fred had become 19 years old on the 19th of July, just over a week before he was killed. He became the 19th name on their Roll of Honour as they knew it at the time.

The fact that Fred was only 19 at the time of his death means that he was underage for service abroad for all but the last week of his life.

Fred Alcock is buried in plot D.20 of Blauwepoort Farm Cemetery. Herbert Nash is also in this cemetery. They both died at Hill 60 in the Ypres salient.