Pte. F.L. Fairburn
|
|
| First name(s): |
Frederick Long |
| Rank: |
Private |
| Number: |
201021 |
| Regiment etc. |
1/5th Prince of Wales Own West Yorkshire Regiment |
| Date Died: |
9th October 1917 |
| Cemetery/Memorial |
Tyne Cot Memorial
|
Little is known of Frederick's family and early life, other than that he was the brother of a Mrs. Wrightson of 46 Park Street, New Park, Harrogate.
He was employed by the Harrogate Brickworks Company for a number of years, before joining the Army in December 1914 as one of the "Beechwood Boys".
He arrived in France in April 1915 and was wounded on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, on 1st July 1916, near the village of Thiepval. His wounds were serious enough to warrant his being sent home to England, and after recovering, he returned to France in January 1917.
Frederick was killed in a major attack during the Battle of Passchendaele on the final ridge which leads up to the village of Passchendaele itself.
The ground over which the troops advanced was a terrible morass, having been churned up by shelling, which had also destroyed the drainage system, causing the overlapping shell craters to fill with water. Even the trench maps reflected this, with positions given names such as "Marsh Bottom" and "Waterfields" - though these names hid the grim reality of the actual conditions in which men lived and died.
Sadly, Frederick's body sank into this morass and was never identified. He died just a few hundred yards from the site of the Tyne Cot Memorial which now bears his name.