Frederick Cole was born in Hemel Hempstead in the summer of 1884 and baptised on New Year’s Day 1885 at St Paul’s Parish church in the town. His parents were George Cole and Sarah Steers and Fred, as he was known, had nine brothers and sisters. His older sisters were Kate Eliza, Elizabeth Matilda and Lillie and his younger siblings were Nellie, Charles Ernest, Sarah Ann, Mary Polly, Sidney John and Florence (known as Florrie). Kate died in 1900 aged twenty-two and the youngest girl Florrie died in the same year shortly after she had been born.

Fred’s father George had worked as brickmaker in Leverstock Green, but by the time Fred was born he had acquired a Threshing Machine and was working as an Agricultural Engine Driver, a job he would do until retirement. A combination of his job and his growing family may well have been the reason for frequent home moves as George took on threshing work on the farms around Hemel Hempstead while the children grew up. The Coles lived at Leverstock Green, St Alban’s Road, Bennett’s End, Ebberns Road in Apsley, Church Street, and Herbert Street, before finally settling in Queen Street just after the outbreak of war.

In 1901 Fred aged sixteen was a ‘Striker’ in an Iron Foundry, a particularly tough and strenuous job. Sometimes known as a ‘hammerman’, the striker assisted a smith and would hammer on heated metal as the smith shaped the piece being made. By 1911 when the family lived at 12 Herbert Street, Fred was working as a General Labourer and had moved to John Dickinson & Co at Nash Mill where he remained until war broke out.

Fred attested at Hemel Hempstead at the end of August 1914 and enlisted with the Bedfordshire Regiment. As a new recruit he reported to the regimental depot at Kempston to be kitted out before heading for the Training Depot at Ampthill. On completion of training at the camp and having been passed fit for 'foreign service', he was initially posted to the 3rd Battalion at Felixstowe, before being quickly despatched to the 2nd Battalion and going to France.

Fred disembarked at Le Havre on the 11th November 1914 and entrained for Bailleul where he and ninety-nine other recruits joined their Battalion comrades on the 15th November. He spent time in the trenches throughout the rest of November, but he was wounded sometime before the famous ‘Christmas Truce’ occurred. The Battalion War Diaries record the following "25 Dec 1914 Christmas day. "The Truce”.” The following is the substance of a report forwarded by C.O. to Brigade H.Q. "On evening of 24th Dec.1914 at about 8 p.m. the Germans were singing in their trenches. There were numerous lights on their parapets apparently on Christmas trees. A voice shouted from their trenches & could be distinctly heard "I want to arrange to bury the dead. Will someone come out & meet me"."

Then on Christmas Day the following: "This morning 25th inst. at 10 A.M. a German officer and 2 men unarmed came out of their trenches with a white flag and were met by Captain H. C. Jackson and asked to be permitted to bury their dead so we said we would not fire till 11.30 A.M. to give them time & this was done." Finally: "During the period that no firing was taking place one of my Company Sergeant Majors was speaking to a German when an elderly officer passed. The German said he was the "Divisioner". This German also said they were very comfortable in a nice village behind but did not give the name! He seemed surprised that our troops were not an elderly Reserve class. The general impression was that the Germans had had enough and were anxious for the War to come to an end."

Fred by this time had been hospitalised and his ‘lucky escape’ and serious wounding were reported in the Hemel Gazette in February when he was recovering at home. On his return to the Front in the spring of 1915 he took part in the Battle of Festubert before being wounded for a second time in June, a fact again reported in the Hemel Gazette.

Misfortune followed Fred back to the Front and only a month later he was reported wounded for a remarkable fourth time, although his mother refuted one of the incidents saying she had received a letter from him saying “that he was all right”. Whatever the accuracy of the reported fourth wounding, Fred had certainly suffered three wounds, one serious, in the nine months he had been at the Front. Tragically however, things were to get worse.

By the 16th September Fred was with the 2nd Battalion in the trenches at Vermelles, six miles south east of Béthune as preparations for the next major offensive progressed. The Battle of Loos started on the 25th September and lasted until the 8th October 1915. It was the biggest British attack of that year and the first time that the British used poison gas. It was also the first mass engagement of Kitchener’s New Army units. It was an effort to break through the German defences in Artois and Champagne and restore a war of movement, but despite improved methods, more ammunition and better equipment, the British attacks were contained by the German armies.

Fred Cole was killed on the first day of the attack at Loos on Saturday, 25th September 1915. The British forces advanced over open fields, within range of German machine guns and artillery and the resulting losses were devastating. The 2nd Battalion Bedfords suffered heavy casualties in the first few hours of the advance for a gain of a few hundred yards and the Battalion War Diaries record: "Casualties of other Ranks during 25.9.15 - 1.10.15. KILLED 45 MISSING 40 WOUNDED 270 – 355."

The Battle of Loos resulted in Sir John French being replaced as Commander in Chief by Sir Douglas Haig and in all the allies suffered 59,247 casualties. This included an appalling 8000 out of 10,000 men in just four hours on the 26th September.

Fred’s death was briefly reported in the Hemel Gazette in the month after he was killed.

He is commemorated on the John Dickinson & Co war memorial in Apsley. 

Fred is Remembered with Honour at the Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France on Panel 41 B.

He was 31 years old when he died.

Fred was eligible for the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.