BORN HULL 1896. ENLISTED HULL. SON OF FRED & ADA M. CAWKWELL. AN EX MEMBER OF LADY JELLICOE’S OWN SEA SCOUTS. HIS PHOTOGRAPH WAS PRINTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL ON 3RD MARCH 1917 AFTER HE HAD BEEN WOUNDED IN THE KNEE. (HDM 03/03/1917) *
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE FRED CAWKWELL 21563. Born March 1896, Fred was the second of six children, and eldest son of Fred and Matilda Cawkwell of 5 Whitedale, Rosmead Street, Hull. A Joiner before the war, Fred enlisted on 9th December 1915 originally joining the 7th Battalion East Yorks before being transferred to the 12th and finally the 10th in February 1917. He fought with the Pals at Oppy Wood and helped bring the German Spring Offensive to a standstill in April 1918 before being killed in action during a surprise attack on enemy positions around Tern Farm on 12th July 1918. His body was never recovered and his name is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial. I want to pay tribute to his relatives for their meticulous research. Fred would have been proud of their turning every stone to remember him. There are two photographs, each telling their own story. The fresh-faced innocent young man in one, and the soldier who stares out of the other. The latter is a clipping from the Hull Daily Mail of the time with the heartbreaking story underneath of how his family were convinced that their Fred was an unnamed man lying wounded in a Rotterdam hospital.
