BORN HULL 1886. ELDEST SON OF FREDERICK KEMPTON & MARY ELIZABETH SEARBY, 46 FRANKLIN STREET. ONE OF ELEVEN CHILDREN. A WOOD SAWYER BY TRADE. MARRIED 1911. WIFE LUCY GERTRUDE (LING) LIVED ABOVE. ENLISTED 22/9/1914. SERVED IN EGYPT. ARRIVED FRANCE 8/3/1916. KILLED IN ACTION 13/11/1916. AGED 30.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE FREDERICK SEARBY 12/543. Born in October 1886 Frederick was one of eleven children and the eldest son of Frederick and Mary Searby of 46 Franklin Street, Hull. A Sawyer by trade he married Lucy Gertrude Ling in 1911 and the couple lived at 5 Ivy Villas. He enlisted on 22nd September 1914 joining the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, 3rd Hull Pals. He served first in Egypt then shipped to France and the trenches of the Western Front. Frederick was listed as missing and his family informed. Later, when his body was eventually discovered during a clean-up campaign Lucy Searby responded to the news with heartbreaking letter:
“…I tried to think there was a mistake and that the body was not his, but I am afraid it is only too true. I am writing to see if you could furnish me with the particulars to when and where he was found and I am presuming his dear body must have been identified by the discs….”
Frederick Searby is buried in Euston Road cemetery; he was 30 years old.
