Frederick William Batchelor

A Private with the 9th Battalion, Frederick died on 26th of April 1917 at the age of 23. 

Frederick was born at Pakefield in 1894, a son of George and Eliza Batchelor. In 1901 his family lived at 17 Prospect Place, Pakefield, and this was still their home in 1911 and Frederick worked as a plumber, and later as a painter.  

In 1916 Frederick married Kathleen Susanna Holmes, of Great Hautbois, Norfolk. By November 1916 their home was at 8 Prospect Place, Pakefield. Subsequently Kathleen married Ernest Keech and lived at Norwich. 

Frederick enlisted in the Army at Lowestoft. He joined the Suffolk Regiment, service number 3851. Frederick did not serve overseas before 1916. He was posted to the 9th Battalion in France and renumbered 43856. 

On 24 April 1917 the 9th Battalion took over the Sunken Road, Novel, Cameron Alley, and Blackwatch Alley, and Natal Trenches, near Loos. The battalion war diary records that on 26 April three men were killed and three wounded.

Frederick was one of the men killed in 26 April. It seems that he had a battlefield buried and by 1921 he had been reburied at Dud Corner Cemetery.