Hamilton, Frederick Charles

BORN HULL 1879. SON OF FC & STEPSON OF EMMA (TROWBELL), – MATRESS MAKER ABOVE 1901 ADDRESS. WIFE SARAH ANN LIVED IN BIRKENHEAD. HE IS RECORDED AS KILLED ON THE OSBORNE STREET ROLL OF HONOUR (HULL DAILY MAIL, 23/10/1916).
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE FREDERICK CHARLES HAMILTON 11/1255. Born in October 1879, Frederick was the son of Frederick and Emma Hamilton, though his father died and Emma remarried a Thomas Trowbell, a Mattress Maker by trade and resident of 8 Mary Ann’s Terrace, Hull. Frederick was a Fisherman before the war, but answered the call of King and Country in the early days of September 1914, queuing outside City Hall for a chance to play a part in the Big European Adventure. Training in Hornsea, Beverley and Ripon throughout 1915, he sailed to Egypt that December, where The Pals were posted to protect the Suez Canal from the Turks. Arriving on the Western Front in March 1916, Frederick first tasted life in the trenches near the sleepy village of Beaumont Hamel, a name that would become all too familiar to the people of Britain over the coming summer and the Somme Offensive. Frederick never got that far, he is listed as having ‘Died’ on 14th April 1916 and is buried at Abbeville Communal Cemetery; he was 37 years old. I can find no reference to his death, but perhaps he fell ill. It had been horrendous weather through April 1916 with incessant rain causing landslips and trenches to collapse. Though a Fisherman working out of Hull would have been a tough old cookie, perhaps it was just too much. He left a wife, Sarah Mary Ann.