Frederick George Taylor was born in Leverstock Green, Hertfordshire on Wednesday, 16th January 1884 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church in the village on Sunday, 12th July 1885. He was the second child born to George Taylor and Elizabeth Ginger (nee Seabrook) and he had eight siblings. Elizabeth had married George following the death of her first husband with whom she had three children, Robert, James and Ellen, Frederick’s older half-siblings. George and Elizabeth had six children together who were: Elizabeth, Frederick, Walter, Annie, Harry and Caroline. Frederick’s sister Annie died in 1897 aged ten and his half sister Elizabeth died in 1902 aged twenty.

In 1891 the Taylors lived in a small four room workman’s cottage on the old St Albans Road, Bennetts End near Hemel Hempstead. The extent of the overcrowding in this small dwelling was noted on the census return by the enumerator. Life must have been difficult for Frederick’s parents with only meagre wages coming in from their Labouring and Straw Plaiting jobs.

In 1901 their situation had improved only marginally as there were now two fewer mouths to feed and four of the family were bringing a wage into the home. The next five years visited misfortune on Frederick’s family when first his sister Elizabeth died in 1902 aged twenty and then in 1905 his mother Elizabeth passed away.

By this time Frederick was working as an ‘Agricultural Labourer’ and just a year after his mother had died, he married eighteen-year-old Kate Purton in the Spring of 1906 in Northchurch. By 1911 he and Kate were living in Westwick Row near Leverstock Green and Frederick was still working on the land. They had four children together; Gladys born in 1907, Phyllis followed in 1910, then Frederick in 1913 and finally Florence in 1914.

Fred’s father George was in court during October 1916 for the theft of a gun valued at £5.00. He took the gun from a barn at Cox’s Pond farm, the property of Harry How. Found guilty and sentenced to four months imprisonment, George remarked wryly, “I shall be in the dry and warm for the winter.” He sadly died in the workhouse the following February and was buried in Leverstock Green.

Frederick enlisted in June 1915, attesting at Watford and enlisting with the 8th (Service) Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment, known as the "Hungry 8th", so-called because of the length of time it spent in training before going to France. Frederick joined the 8th at the New Army training area in Woking from where the Battalion mobilised and went to France at the end of August 1915 before moving to the trenches around Ypres on the Yser Canal. Frederick completed his training and followed them in 1916.

The records available do not state exactly when he went to France but it may have been as late as May 1916. The war diary recorded: "13 May 1916 Camp E, Wood A30. - Drill and training by Coys. - Reinforcements 1 off and 122 O.R. joined today.

He saw action in the trenches around Ypres until moving to Thiepval near Béthune on the Somme in August. By mid-September he was near Longueval as the 8th Battalion prepared for an assault on High Wood where the Germans were heavily entrenched. This was the Battle of Flers-Courcelette where the newly invented tank was deployed on a battlefield for the first time.

On the 15th September, the attack began and following fierce fighting throughout the day the assault had failed and the Battalion was relieved. 

However, the casualties incurred were significant due to the heavy machine gun enfilade from the enemy positions. Frederick was listed missing "presumed killed" at the end of this action.

He was subsequently confirmed killed in action on Friday, 15th September 1916.

He was commemorated on the Leverstock Green war memorial in the village and remembered at the Easter Service in 1919 at Holy Trinity Church.

Frederick is Remembered with Honour on Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France, Pier and Face 2 C

He was 34 years old when he died

Frederick was entitled to the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.