Mowforth, Fred

BORN HESSLE 17/8/1881. SON OF CHARLES & JANE MOWFORTH. WIFE HANNAH MARY (PITTOCK) ABOVE. MARRIED HULL 1911. WAS A GARDNER. LIVED LADYWELL COTTAGE, ROUNDAY, LEEDS. HULL ADDRESS FROM HULL DAILY MAIL.
Private Frederick Mowforth served in the Machine Gun Corps (Infantry) and his Regimental Number was 65955. Frederick formally served with the Yorkshire Light Infantry (Regimental Number 5730). He was killed in action on the 10th October 1917. Frederick’s brother Henry also served in the Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), Regimental Number 46885. Henry was formally with the East Yorkshire Regiment 24453. He was killed in action on the 3rd September 1918. In 1911 Frederick and Henry parents lived In West Ella. Their father was called Charles (a farmer) and their mother was called Jane. They also had a younger brother called Frank (aged 14 in 1911) who was also killed in action on the 10th September 1918 (a week after his brother Henry). Frank served with the 1st Battalion East Yorkshire
Regiment with a Regimental Number of 39734.
The Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was a corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front in World War I. The Heavy Branch of the MGC was the frst to use tanks in combat, and the branch
was subsequently turned into the Tank Corps, later called the Royal Tank Regiment. The MGC was disbanded in 1922. A year of warfare on the Western Front proved that, to be fully effective, machine guns must be used in larger units and crewed by specially trained
men. The Machine Gun Corps was formed with Infantry, Cavalry and Motor branches, followed in 1916 by the Heavy Branch.