BORN HULL 1879. SON OF MR ALLISON SOWERBY (1848-1900) & PAULINA CRANSWICK (1851-1890). HE HAD ONE BROTHER JACK, WHO LIVED AT 1, RAIKES STREET, DRYPOOL. WORKED AS A DOCK LABOURER. DESCRIBED AS 5 FOOT, 7 INCHES TALL, 143 LBS WEIGHT, 37-39 INCH CHEST, BLUE EYES, BROWN HAIR.
HE ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS ON 07/10/1914. HE MARRIED AT HULL, ON 10/11/1914. HIS WIFE MARY ANN (ANNIE) FLETCHER (1877-1929) & FOUR CHILDREN LIVED AT, 3, SARAH ANN TERRACE, SPYVEE STREET, HULL (ARMY ADDRESS) AND 10, MELTON TERRACE (WAR PENSION ADRESS).
BETWEEN 01/03/1915 – 03/04/1915, HE WAS FINED FOR FOUR SEPARATE INCIDENCES OF BEING ABSENT AND OVERSTAYING LEAVE. HE SERVED IN EGYPT FROM 15/12/1915. ARRIVED FRANCE 08/03/1916. HIS ILL DISCIPLINE CONTINUED AND HE WAS GIVEN 14 DAYS FIELD PUNISHMENT NO:1 ON 13/03/1916. HE WAS WOUNDED IN THE RIGHT ARM BY A SHELL ON 16/11/1916 AND RETURNED TO ENGLAND. HE DIED AT BETHNEL GREEN HOSPITAL, EAST LONDON, OF WOUNDS ON 25/11/1916, AT 4.45PM, WITH HIS WIFE PRESENT. HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH.
HIS GRAVE INSCRIPTION, READS, “ROCK OF AGES CLEFT FOR ME LET ME HIDE MYSELF IN THEE”. HIS ARMY EFFECTS WERE LEFT TO HIS WIDOW ANNIE, WHO MOVED TO 10, MELTON TERRACE, CLEVELAND STREET, HULL.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE FREDERICK SOWERBY 12/1044. Born in November 1879, Frederick was the son of Allison and Paulina Sowerby. A Docker by trade he married Mary Ann Fletcher and the couple had four children: Jessie, Frederick, Lizzie and Annie. When war came he enlisted at City Hall on 7th October 1914 joining the fledgling 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, 3rd Hull Pals. From the start the strictures of military discipline seemed to be somewhat at odds with his temperament and his charge sheet is a pretty long one. Parades seemed to be of particular anathema to him. He served in Egypt from late December 1915 to March 1916 when the battalion landed at Marseilles and headed north by train for the Englebelmer and the trenches of the Western Front. The front line was not to be Frederick’s first port of call though. He was laid-up for several months with a particularly troublesome case of Gonorrhoea which kept him away from the fighting until the Summer. Frederick was wounded in the right arm on the Somme and shipped back to London where he died in Bethnal Green hospital on 25th November 1916 with his next of kin by his side. He is buried in Hedon Road Cemetery, Hull; he was 36 years old. Left one brother, Jack Sowerby, at 1 Raikes Street, Church street, Hull
