Tales from the Front (40)

Genealogical war memorials of Bournemouth’s fallen

Hill 60: May 2nd, 1915

Introduction

Tales from the Front (40) tells the story of Frederick Martin, a native of Victorian Bournemouth, who fought in the Great War. Sergeant Martin, a professional soldier, had already served several years with the First Battalion, Dorset Regiment. On Hill 60, in Flanders, he fell victim to the poisoned gas attack of the previous day.

Tales from the Front (40): Background

City people

Many families whose sons fell in France migrated to Bournemouth from rural areas during the Victorian period. Economic hardship had pushed them to leave settlements where their families had lived for generations. In contrast, Martin had sprung from city folk. Several generations on his father’s side had laboured on building sites in Caterham, which underwent rapid urbanisation. His mother came from another London suburb, Gravesend, but her parents had left rural Hampshire before her birth. They returned by the 1880s. It seems plausible that Martin’s parents met through work. Both their fathers worked as bricklayer labourers. A link may have grown from shared work on one of Bournemouth’s many building sites. Indeed, the resort’s apparent endless construction work may have pulled them from their previous urban environments. Martin’s father appears to have prospered, for, by 1901, his household contained seven children. Lodgers, however, suggest he welcomed additional income.

Military professional

Before enlisting, Frederick Martin worked as an indoor servant, perhaps a footman or even a valet. Aged 18, he joined the Dorset Regiment in 1907. His service record shows that he already had army experience, having earlier joined the militia. Of average height, with a fresh complexion and blue eyes, Martin had tattoos on both forearms. A girl and a heart on one suggests a sweetheart or, perhaps, hope. He moved from barracks to barracks, arriving in Belfast, listed in C Company, early 1913. His record shows he passed educational certificates, which qualified him for promotions, which began in 1910. These promotions followed in 1910, reaching Lance-Sergeant by 1913. At this point, he went on to the regiment’s reserve. He soon returned to active service, mobilised a day after the declaration of war. In early September, as the Dorsets crossed the Marne, Martin received promotion to full sergeant.

Tales from the Front (40): Hill 60

May 2nd, 1915

On May 1st, the gas shot over, heading for Hill 60, trench 40, behind and below it, to the right at 38, and to the left, at the Zwarteleen Salient. C Company manned trench 40 and Hill 60, where one platoon stood in a trench. The gas accounted for most of them. One of its young officers, however, together with four survivors, jumped on the parapet, above the gas. They conducted rapid fire to convince the enemy that an infantry attack would face problems. Of all its Companies, the Dorsets suffered the greatest loss in this one. Sergeant Shephard thought they had lost over three-quarters of their men. Sergeant Frederick Martin had served in C Company when the Dorsets first came to France in 1914. Thus, he and his men may have faced the worst of the gas attack. He reached a Casualty Clearing Station but died the next day.

Let others take a turn

When the British captured Hill 60 in April, a survivor expressed his feelings. ‘The strain was awful, and to see your pals go one by one adds to the horror. We cried like children and were completely broken up.’ After the Dorsets’ gassing on May 1st, Sergeant Ernest Shephard experienced similar feelings. ‘I feel quite knocked up, as we all are, and crying with rage.’ These examples illustrate the personal trauma suffered by fighting on Hill 60. As a rule, Shephard’s diary entries show him as resolute in command. During the first gassing at Hill 60, officers had to stop him from pursuing the enemy. He remained courageous throughout, but he would have felt the loss of fellow Sergeants like Frederick Martin. That events would bring this man to tears indicates the excessive strain. He’d served in the line for almost a month. Let somebody else do it.

Aftermath

Martin’s parents lived long; his mother until 1955. He had had only one brother amongst his numerous siblings. No military references have emerged for him. After the war, he worked as a motor mechanic. Their youngest daughter, however, Queenie, worked as a clerk for the RAF in Uxbridge in 1921. At least one girl worked in domestic service.

After the May 5th gas attack, the Dorsets withdrew to lick their wounds. Despite attending to his men, Sergeant Shephard had time on May 7th to note that he heard a cuckoo. By May 12th, they had recovered enough to hold a gymkhana. News of the Lusitania’s sinking now reached them. It pushed Shephard to consider exacting vengeance: ‘the poor little kiddies and the helpless women’. He thought it right for the BEF to employ gas. Within another week, they returned to near Hill 60.

Takeaway

Tales from the Front (40) has explored the background, life, and military career of Frederick Martin (1888-1915). A professional soldier, he had already served a full tour of duty with the First Dorsets by 1913. Mobilised as soon as the British government declared war, he resumed as an NCO and became a full sergeant early in September 1914. The record shows him as a capable, accomplished soldier, but not without hope, as his tattoos imply. He qualified as one of the Old Contemptibles cut down by the Kaiser during the first year of fighting.

‘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.