Parkwood area
Private. 2nd Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment. Service no. 10556.
Early life:
Fred Pickard was born on 9th October 1891 and baptised at St Mary’s Church, Eastwood about a month later on 12th November. His parents were Frank and Ann Pickard and he had two brothers Willie and Tom, and two sisters Annie and Emma. His father Frank was a labourer and the family lived at Broom Terrace in Parkwood.
Fred was nine in 1901 and his father Frank had died before the census, his mother Ann was head of the family and by this time they were living at 2, Moses Street in Eastwood, Keighley.
In 1911 he was 19 years old and working as a wool comber, boarding with the Sharpe family at 2, Brow Street in Parkwood.
At the age of twenty, Fred married Eva Bullock on July 6, 1912 at St Michael and All Angels Church in Haworth. They were both living at 6, Mount Street in Haworth and Fred was a woolcomber, Eva was a twister. By 1915 they were living at 7, Broom Street in Parkwood.
War service:
Fred was apparently living in Miles Platting, Lancashire when he enlisted in August, 1914, although he came back to Keighley to join up and is named in ‘Keighley’s Gallant Sons,’ a list of local men who volunteered early in the war. He is also listed in the Keighley Town Clerk’s 1914 enlistment records and recorded as having a wife and one child aged 6 months. It also shows he was in the Halifax Militia. After training, he entered France whilst serving in the 2nd Battalion West Riding Regiment on April 29, 1915.
Death in action:
He was killed in action on October 23, 1916 whilst serving with the 2nd Battalion Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment, during a failed attack on SPECTRUM and DEWDROP trenches held by the Germans and it seems that artillery fire caused some of the casualties. These trenches were about a quarter of a mile West South West of Le Transloy. He went missing during the attack and was presumed dead for a while, however they must have located his body afterwards as he was originally laid to rest in a battlefield site about quarter of a mile East of Lesboeufs.
He was reported wounded in the local newspaper although he had in fact been killed in action.
Keighley News 25th November 1916, p 5:
It has been officially announced during the past week that the following Keighley soldiers have been wounded: West Riding Regiment: Private J.H. Morrison (10942), Private F. Metcalfe (3747), and Private F. Pickard (10556.)
In November 1919 his grave along with several others was reburied after the war ended, in what was then referred to as Grass Lane Cemetery. He is now buried in grave 13, row b, plot III of the A.I.F. Burial Ground at Flers.
Post war and Remembrance:
Fred was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal for his war service. His back pay, war gratuity and medals were sent to his wife Eva as his next of kin.
He is remembered locally in Keighley’s Great War roll of honour book in Keighley Library and also on the Sun Street Methodist Church war memorial in the care of Cliffe Castle Museum.
As his widow, Eva received £4 4s 0d on 11th March 1918 which would have been his outstanding back pay. She later received a war gratuity payment of £9 10s 0d on 29th October 1919.
She received a dependant’s pension of 13 shillings and nine pence per week from 17th January 1918. This was stopped when she remarried, to Miles George Sharp, a soldier of 86, Opie Street in Lancaster. The marriage took place on 31st August 1918 at St. Polycarp Church.
In the 1921 census Eva was recorded living at 43, Anthony Street, Liverpool and in the 1939 Register she was living at 526, Moston Lane in Manchester.
She died in Oldham in 1983 aged 90.
Information sources:
1891 England Census.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915.
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1910.
1901 England Census.
1911 England Census.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915.
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1813-1935.
West Yorkshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1840-1962 results for Fred Pickard.
Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929.
British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920.
WWI Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920.
World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923
Liverpool, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935.
1921 England Census.
1939 England and Wales Register.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007.
