8656 Pte Frederick G Newton, 2nd Bn, HLI

8656 Private Frederick George Newton of the 2nd Battalion, Highland Light Infantry, died on the 13th September 1914. He was born in Kensington, a cook by trade, and he joined the HLI in London in late June 1903. At the time of his death he was 28 years old and married (in February 1909) to Fanny Newton (nee Jennings). The couple lived at 193 Victoria Dock Road, Custom House, London with their three children, the youngest of these just a few months old when Frederick went to war.

Pages from Frederick's service record survive in the WO 363 series at the National Archives. This shows that he was transferred to the Army Reserve on the 26th June 1906 (having originally attested for three years with the colours and nine on the reserve) and that he was subsequently mobilized on the 5th August 1914. He was posted missing on the 13th September and later assumed, for official purposes, to have died on that day. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the La Ferte sous Jouarre Memorial in France. CWGC gives his age at death as 28 and yet the age stated on his 1903 attestation papers notes that he was 20 years and three months old at the time of his enlistment.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry (MIC, WO 363)
Soldiers Died in The Great War
Army Service Numbers
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission