Fred and Emily’s boy didn’t have a grave, so they made a memorial for him in Radnor Street Cemetery.
Fred and Emily married in middle age. He was 45 and she was 41. They had both been previously widowed. Emily had a daughter Elsie Louise, Fred doesn’t appear to have had any children by his first wife. And then along came little Fred. Was he the apple of their eye? Was he their pride and joy?
Fred was a Lance Corporal in the 2nd Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment when he was killed in action on May 30, 1918. He was 19 years old. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Soissons Memorial.
Emily died in December 1926 and is buried with her first husband John Williams in plot number A2494. Fred died in February 1932 and is buried with his first wife in plot number B2331.
The memorial to their son stands on Emily’s grave.
The original British Expeditionary Force crossed the Aisne in August 1914 a few kilometres west of Soissons, and re-crossed it in September a few kilometres east. For the next three and a half years, this part of the front was held by French forces and the city remained within the range of German artillery.
At the end of April 1918, five divisions of Commonwealth forces (IX Corps) were posted to the French 6th Army in this sector to rest and refit following the German offensives on the Somme and Lys. Here, at the end of May, they found themselves facing the overwhelming German attack which, despite fierce opposition, pushed the Allies back across the Aisne to the Marne. Having suffered 15,000 fatal casualties, IX Corps was withdrawn from this front in early July, but was replaced by XXII Corps, who took part in the Allied counter attack that had driven back the Germans by early August and recovered the lost ground.
The Soissons Memorial commemorates almost 4,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom forces who died during the Battles of the Aisne and the Marne in 1918 and who have no known grave.
The memorial was designed by G.H. Holt and V.O. Rees, with sculpture by Eric Kennington. It was unveiled by Sir Alexander Hamilton-Gordon on 22 July 1928.
published courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.
Post originally published on May 28, 2022.
Radnor Street Cemetery 