Tales from the Front (35)

Genealogical war memorials of Bournemouth’s fallen

Hill 60: May 1st, 1915

Introduction

Tales from the Front (35) tells the story of Frederick George Jeans, a native of Victorian Bournemouth, who fought in the Great War. Private Jeans, a former gardener, enlisted with the First Battalion, Dorset Regiment. He fell at Hill 60, near Ypres, in the evening of May 1st, 1915, a victim of poison gas, a new type of killing agent.

Tales from the Front (35): Background

Little improvement

The Jeans name had a strong presence in Stalbridge, Dorset, near Sherborne: over 100 people in 1861. Frederick’s father, Aquila, worked as a wheelwright. Other family members also had skilled employment: blacksmith, tailor, butcher. Aquila, however, emigrated. He married a labourer’s daughter from Tarrant Monkton, near Blandford, but the wedding occurred in Witchampton, near Wimborne. Later, the couple migrated to Andover. After Aquila’s early death, his widow became the second wife of a local cordwainer. This connection created a nexus of half-siblings and different surnames. The cordwainer transplanted this mixed family to Boscombe, including Frederick’s father. While many of Bournemouth’s immigrants improved their social position, Frederick’s father married a gardener’s daughter and worked in domestic service as a coachman and chauffeur. Thus, he drifted away from the artisan world of his father and stepfather. These men had the independence associated with their crafts, but he entered a context of subservience.

Different spoils

Frederick Jeans, named after his father, perhaps born in Boscombe in 1895 or 1896, had moved to Parkstone by 1901. Here, his father worked in domestic service as a coachman, a job he continued in 1911. The family lived on Lilliput Road, Parkstone. By this time, Frederick, aged 15, also had a service job, working as a gardener. The family now consisted of at least six children. Frederick joined the army while still a teenager, as did many in the country. No evidence has emerged to fix the date of his enlistment. Given his age, however, he may not have joined up at the start of the war. He does not appear to have married, as the record of his effects lists his father as the authorised recipient. Jeans left the quiet life of digging Bournemouth’s soil for more earthwork in France, but in quite a different context.

Tales from the Front (35): Hill 60

Strange new world

The Boers had surprised the British a decade earlier. They did not wear uniforms, fighting as invisible warriors applying guerrilla tactics. Instead of seeing this as the future of war, the British public and military establishment framed the Boers as “cheaters.” They convinced themselves that a “proper” war against a European “civilised” power would return to the classic rules of engagement: cavalry charges and grand manoeuvres. While Kipling criticised the English as ‘flannelled fools’, he advocated not change but greater devotion to the model. So, the British entered the Great War expecting a conflict to unfold as a game of cricket, hard but fair. Indeed, this belief provided a firm social scaffolding for the entire culture. Poison gas, a modern weapon introduced by the German army, shattered this construct. Those crying after the gas at Hill 60 mourned their friends but also the psychological damage to their military beliefs.

May 1st, 1915

At dawn on this day, the First Dorsets took up position on Hill 60 and the adjacent trenches. Heat rose through the morning. Matters remained quiet until 1400, the men collecting and burying bodies, British and German, scattered across the hilltop. They may have had intelligence or an inkling that the Germans would use gas. At 1900, Captain Batten, B Company, had his men practise with respirators, but they had insufficient water to wet their filters. Events unfolded at speed. At 1915, the Germans shot thick volumes of gas over Hill 60 and the adjacent trenches. It arrived too fast for the Dorsets to don respirators or find safety. If they lay low in the trenches, the gas, heavier than air, followed them. Panic and chaos ensued. The two supporting companies advanced up the hill. By 2200, normality resumed. Somewhere in the three hours, Jeans vanished, later reported gassed.

Aftermath

His parents lived long after the end of the Great War. Indeed, his father witnessed several other global conflicts, dying just after the Suez affair, another shattering event for Britain. They suffered further pain following Frederick’s death. A younger brother, Arthur, joined the Hampshire Regiment, then moved to the Cambridgeshire Regiment, but died in August 1918. Another brother, William Aquila Jeans, may have emigrated to New Zealand.

Life remained difficult for the First Dorsets. They lost many others to the gas, killed and wounded. Over the next three days, they searched for their comrades’ bodies and the gassed survivors. Most of the latter would have died by May 5th. On this day, the Germans renewed their ambitions to take Hill 60, once again supported by poison gas. This time, despite the Dorsets’ stalwart fighting, they could not prevent the Germans from taking the position, which thereafter remained in their possession.

Takeaway

Tales from the Front (35) has explored the background, life, and military career of Frederick Jeans (1896-1915). A native of Bournemouth, where he worked in domestic service as a gardener, he enlisted with the First Dorsets and sailed to France. On May 1st, 1915, Private Jeans fell victim to poison gas at Hill 60, near Ypres.

‘Tales from the Front’

A collection of personal stories honouring the natives of Victorian Bournemouth who gave their lives on the battlefield and the regiments with which they served. Blending social and military history with genealogical insight, it explores their roots, families, occupations, and the ultimate sacrifices they made for their country.

The posts weave genealogical data together with eyewitness accounts found in war diaries, contemporary press coverage, and official military histories. The series offers a powerful and intimate portrait of Bournemouth’s wartime heroes offset with live accounts of battlefield action. 

Serving as a companion and continuation of Victorian Bournemouth, Tales from the Front forms part of News from the Past: History for the Rest of Us.

References

For references and engagement, please get in touch. Main primary sources: here and here (subscriptions needed). For War Diaries, go here. See also here. The featured picture shows an imagined scene—genealogical information based on available sources.