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SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY
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"WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"
C/12031 Rifleman FREDERICK RICHARD GOODALL.
12th Battalion., King's Royal Rifle Corps.
Died of wounds, aged 27, on the 23rd of August 1917
Born at Mirfield, Yorks. Enlisted at Richmond, N Yorks.
Son of Dick and Elizabeth Goodall, of Mirfield, Yorks.
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Etaples Military Cemetery. 27k S of Boulogne.
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FAMILY:-
A Parish Magazine of 1914 gives address as 17 High St, Skelton.
1891. Frederick, aged 2, is living at 6 Providence Tce, Mirfield, Yorks, place of birth.
His father Dick, aged 41, is a Commercial Traveller, born in Huddersfield.
His mother, Elizabeth, aged 42, born in Marsden.
He has 3 brothers, Earnest, 18, a corn miller, John, 11 and Tom aged 8.
And 2 sisters, Mary, 14, a Domestic Servant and Sarah, 13.
1911 census. Frederick Richard Goodall, aged 22, is living with his older brother, Tom, who is a Solicitor, at Bank Street, Mirfield, Yorks and working for a Land Surveyor and Estate Agent, as a Clerk.
Connection to Skelton not traced.
ATTESTATION
Frederick's Attestation Form below shows that he enlisted at Richmond, N Yorks on the 16th September 1915 at the age of 26 years 6 months and gave Land Agents Clerk as his occupation.
He had a slight hammer toe on his right foot and wore glasses.
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WAR SITUATION:-
The 12th (Service) Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps was formed in Winchester on September 21st 1914 and was attached to 60th Brigade,
20th (Light) Division.
Frederick's Medal Card shows that he was not awarded the 1914/15 Star. Although he volunteered for service in 1915 he did not go to France until 1916.
From the 23rd November 1916 to the 2nd June 1917 he was repatriated to the UK suffering from Nephritis, which is an inflammation of the kidneys, causing blood in the urine and other incapacitating symptoms.
When he arrived back with his Battalion the 20th Division were fighting in the Third Battle of Ypres or Passchendaele.
An offensive was mounted by Commonwealth forces at Ypres to divert German attention from a weakened French front further south.
The initial attempt in June to dislodge the Germans from the Messines Ridge was a complete success.
The Infantry attacked on the 31st July after a 2 week Artillery bombardment, which gave the Germans warning and destroyed the drainage of what was to start with a swampy plain.
One of the wettest Summers on record then turned the battleground into pits of mud in which men and horses drowned.
The campaign finally came to a close in November with the capture of Passchendaele.
The 5 mile advance over 3 months had cost 325,000 Allied casualties and a quarter of a million Germans.
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On the 16th August Frederick received gunshot wounds to his stomach and chest.
He was taken via a Casualty Station to a General Hospital at Etaples where he died on the 23rd.
MEMORIAL:-
Etaples town lies about 27 kilometres South of Boulogne. 11 General Hospitals and 4 Red Cross Hospitals were stationed around it in the First War.
The largest CWGC cemetery in France lies to the North of the town and has 10,771 burials.
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