Frederick George May

​ Frederick George May was born in Perranzabuloe, near Perranporth on the north coast of Cornwall, in 1888. They were a farming family. Both Frederick and his father Edmund Truscott May worked as farm labourers, and the family lived on The Square, Probus. It could not have been an easy existence in many ways: Edmund and his wife Emily had at least eight children, but only three survived to maturity. They had lost five of their children; the First World War was to take one more. 

Frederick enlisted in Truro. He served with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. In 1916 the 1 DCLI took part in many of the battles that made up the Some Offensive. During 1917, the 1 DCLI were involved in many actions: the Battle of Vimy, the attack on La Coulette, the 3rd Battle of the Scarpe, Battle of Oppy Wood, and the Battle of Broodseinde. 

The Battle of Broodseinde. 4th October 1917 

This battle, fought very near Ypres, was the most successful of all the attacks made during the Third Battle of Ypres. There had been significant advances made by the Allies the previous month, in the Menin Road and Polygon Wood areas. The objective for this attack was the taking of the ruined-villages of Zonnebeke, Gravenstafel and Poelcappelle along the Broodseinde Ridge. 

The preliminary bombardment took the Germans by surprise and out in the open. It did not go well for them from that point onwards. The German Fourth Army was pitted against twelve British, Australian and New Zealand divisions. The attack began at 6am on the 4th, The NZ units took Zonnebeke village and most of the Broodseinde Ridge. The Australians captured the ground on which now stands the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Tyne Cot memorial to the missing. 

However, it came at a heavy cost in lives lost and damaged: some 20,000 killed, wounded and missing from the Allied forces. The Germans lost some 34,000. The battles of the First World War never fail to stagger with their brutal cost in life and limb. 

But we are looking at one life, one of the 20,000. Private Frederick May was initially "presumed dead" after the action had ended. His body was however subsequently found and buried. If a cross or marker of any kind was on the grave, it was no longer there when the men of the Labour Corps, working for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission when the war was over, uncovered his body for reburial in one of the official cemeteries. Frederick, the farm worker from Probus, was only able to be identified by his pay book and will, which must have been still tucked inside his uniform pockets. He now lies in the Hooge Crater Cemetery, West Vlaanderen, Belgium. There are 2,353 men buried here. 

His personal effects were initially intended to be sent to his mother Emily. This was cancelled when it was learnt that she had died in September 1918. They were then sent on to his father, who in a short space of time had lost both a son and his wife. 

 

 

 

Researched and written by Stephen Jackson