Frederick James Ricketts. Died 20th July 1916
Frederick was born in 1892 in Great Bookham, Surrey to father, George and mother, Elizabeth. He was the third born and had three siblings, two brothers, William and Charles and a sister, Susan. By the age of 18, Frederick had become a Butcher’s Assistant and later was married to Elizabeth. His mother, a widow by 1911, lived at 60 Peach Street and Frederick and Elizabeth later lived across the road at 55a.
Frederick joined the Royal Berkshire Regiment, 6th Battalion, around 1914 and was soon on his way to France. By 191x he had been killed on the 20th July of 1916, during the Battle of the Somme. The action was an attack on Delville Wood and lasted into the early hours of the 21st. The attack became confused and leaderless and by the end it the sixth was almost completely devastated
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Captain Rochford described his move up to Longueval in his memoir:- “The four battalions were sent up through a defile [the sunken road into Longueval] in broad daylight, with German balloons up, and most of the battalion had to halt for quite a considerable period in the sunken road, where they were exposed to shelling from three sides. Every gun that the Germans could get turned on to the road opened fire and I have never seen a short stretch of road with so many casualties on it as the piece leading into Longueval village”. Read more of John Chapman’s history of the battalion
A notice appeared in the Reading Mercury on 19th August:
“Private Fred J Ricketts Royal Bershire Regiment, son of Mrs Ricketts of 55a Peach street has been officially reported died in hospital in France on 20th July of wounds received the previous day. The late Pte Ricketts was employed previous to the war by Mr T B Pither and belonged to the Old Boys Brigade”.
Name:RICKETTS, FREDERICK JAMES
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: Royal Berkshire Regiment Unit Text:”B” Company. 6th Battalion.
Age: 23
Date of Death: 20/07/1916
Service No:12779
Additional information: Husband of Elizabeth Ricketts, of Wokingham, Berkshire.
Grave/Memorial Reference: Plot 1. Row E. Grave 23.Cemetery: CORBIE COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION. Corbie was about 20 kilometres behind the front when Commonwealth forces took over the line from Berles-au-Bois southward to the Somme in July 1915. The town immediately became a medical centre, with Nos 5 and 21 Casualty Clearing Stations based at La Neuville (the suburb across the Ancre) until October 1916 and April 1917 respectively. In November 1916 the front moved east, but the German advance in the Spring of 1918 came within 10 kilometres of the town and brought with it field ambulances of the 47th Division and the 12th Australian Field Ambulance. The communal cemetery was used for burials until May 1916, when the plot set aside was filled and the extension opened. The majority of the graves in the extension are of officers and men who died of wounds in the 1916 Battle of the Somme. The remainder relate to the fighting of 1918. The communal cemetery contains 249 First World War burials, the extension 918.
60 Peach Street, Wokingham, Berkshire
55a Peach Street, Wokingham, Berkshire