Private. 1st/5th Bn. York and Lancaster Regiment. Service number 205259.
Early life:
Fred was born on December 7, 1892 in Haworth. Registered at Keighley in the last quarter of the year.
Parents William and Sarah Peverley.
He was baptised on January 14, 1893 at St Michael and All Angels Church in Haworth. William was a Yarn Maker.
In 1901 he was eight years old and at 20, Willow Terrace at Armley in Leeds. as a visitor with George and Ann Chatterton. His parents were recorded at 9, Belle Isle Road in Haworth, along with his older brother Frank aged fourteen.
His father William died in 1903 when Fred would have been about ten years old.
In 1911 Fred was eighteen and living at 39 Station Rd in Oakworth with his widowed mother and Nellie Courtley, a boarder. Fred was single and working as a bobbin carver, probably at Oakworth Bobbin Mill.
War service:
Fred attested on December 26, 1915 with the 4th Reserve Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment. He was a paper tube maker working for J. Stell at Holme Mill in Keighley. He was not mobilised until August 8, 1917 at Halifax age twenty-two years and eleven months. He was posted to the British Expeditionary Force on January 11, 1918 and left for Folkestone on that date, embarking in Boulogne in France the next day before travelling to the infantry base depot in Etaples for further training and posting to the 1/5th Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment. He was killed in action on April 19, 1918.
Keighley News May 18, 1918 page 3:
Private F. Peverly(sic), of the York and Lancaster Regiment, and of 39, Station Road, Oakworth, has been killed in action. Aged 25 years, he was formerly employed by J. Stell & Sons, paper tube makers, Holme Mills, Keighley. [His picture also appears in this issue but he is mis-named as Punley, F.]
1st/5th Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment war diary extract for April 1918:
April 10 to April 195. This attack took place in the neighbourhood of STEENWERK – BAILLEUL and LOCRE. With an accompanying artillery barrage, the battalion attacked three farm houses to root out the German forces holding them. At least three enemy machine guns were based inside them and in some craters surrounding them. The attack achieved much to destroy the enemy machine guns and their men but failed to take the farms due to enemy guns firing on them. Our men tried to go around the sides of the barrage but were fired on by enemy machine guns which were
also taken out. A withdrawal was necessary but not before seventy seven men became casualties and at least fourteen were killed in the action, one of these men being Private Fred Peverley.
Remembrance:
Fred’s body was never found and he is remembered on the Tyne Cot memorial to the missing in Belgium.
He is remembered on the Oakworth war memorial in Holden Park, Oakworth and the Oakworth Wesleyan roll of honour in Oakworth Methodist Church.
He is also named on Oakworth’s Great War Centenary roll of honour in Oakworth Community Hall.
Post war:
He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal for his war service.
