Private Fred Shrubsole was born in 1884 in Deal, Kent, the son of James & Selina Shrubsole & brother of Helena & Fanny Shrubsole. The family originally came from Sellindge, Kent. In 1891 the family were living in the High Street, Minster; his father was a baker by trade and Fred followed in his footsteps for a while. He was lodging with a baker and his wife in 1901 in Hastings, Sussex noting his occupation as a journeyman baker. By 1911 he was lodging with another family in Tenterden and gave his occupation as journeyman miller. His mother died in 1906 presumably whilst he was away from home.
He joined the 11th Bn, Queen’ Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) on 3 Nov 1915 at the age of 32, a single man, citing his address as Chislehurst, Kent and his occupation as carman; so either the baking wasn’t working or he had tired of it.
He was stationed in England, presumably for training, from enlistment until 3 May 1916 when he joined the British Expeditionary Force in France.
Private Frederick (Fred) Shrubsole, G10667. was killed in action in the field on 7th October 1916 and if one reads the battalion history then it must have been hell.
The British had recently taken Fleurs and now wished to advance the line. The attack which commenced on 7th October had followed days of delay due to heavy rain. Not only were the men in mud but the whole area was still littered with dead bodies. It was impossible to walk without treading on dead bodies, whilst the parapets and parados (the rear sides of the trench) were, to a great degree, formed of them. One can only imagine the morale of the men as they waited, in this horror & stench with constant shelling, for the attack to begin. Some had not even had the experience of going 'over the top', whilst many of the new draft had never even been in the line before.
It was against this background that the advance started on 7th October 1916 at 1.35pm. They came under devastating fire and the losses were enormous – three out of every four had been hit, including all the company officers except one. Fred was obviously among those that were hit that day, and whilst his death, along with others is really sad, what somehow seems worse is the living nightmare they must have been in leading up to this battle.
His father James collected & signed for his medals – British War Medal and Victory Medal in 1919. I do hope his father & sisters were really very proud of Fred as well as grieving for him.
FRED SHRUBSOLE
b 1884 Deal, Kent
d 7th October 1916 France
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial, The Somme, France
