Bussell, Frederick James

BORN BRISTOL 1883. ENLISTED HULL. HDM 28/7/17. WIFE LILLY ABOVE – 1911 CENSUS. PAINTER. NB: WILLIAM BUSWELL – 2 ASHBURN VILLAS, HAWTHORN AVE.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE FREDERICK JAMES BUSSELL 23981. Born in 1883 in Bristol, Frederick lost his parents as a child and was raised by his Aunt and Uncle before making the journey north just after the turn of the century. A Painter by trade, he married Lilian Terry on 11th June 1904 and the couple lived at 35 Seaton Street, Hull with their four children William, Lily, Irene and Nora. When war came Frederick volunteered at Hull City Hall joining the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment. He survived the Somme and Oppy Wood, but it was his return to the latter that cost Frederick his life. He was killed in action on 28th June 1917 as David Bilton recalls in his book ‘Hull Pals’:
“At 12 noon on the 28th C Company moved from the railway cutting to its assembly trenches and at 2.30pm Battalion HQ was set up in Marine Trench. At 5pm the enemy put down a barrage on the British Front and support lines causing many casualties to C Company including six deaths, among them some original Pals: Privates Brough, Busby, Johnson, Morley, Woollons. Also killed was Private Bussell an East Yorkshire Regiment Kitchener volunteer.”
None of these men were ever seen again, they were literally blown to smithereens. Frederick is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the missing; he was 34 years old.