| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Frederick Pape was born in Cottingham the 15 Apr 1884 and baptised on 15 Jun 1884. He was one of seven children born to Johnstone and Lavinia Pape (nee Witty). Fredericks father was originally from Leven whilst his mother was from Cottingham. They had married in Cottingham in 1879. Johnstone Pape was a law clerk and their home was in Northgate, Cottingham. In the mid-1890s they moved to Beverley and living at 38 Wilbert Grove (Edale House). After leaving school, Fred became a joiner’s apprentice and after qualifying classified himself as a carpenter. He spent time away from Cottingham: in 1911 he was working in mid Wales at Newtown, Montgomeryshire.
Frederick returned to Beverley joining the Territorial Army as a sapper. He joined the East Riding (Fortress) Royal Engineers whose base was at Colonial Street, Hull and whose remit was to look after the fortresses in the mouth of the River Humber. Fred was in N0 1 Works Company. The unit contained highly skilled men attracted by a higher rate of pay than for other units. Despite the attack by the German High Seas Fleet on coastal towns such as Scarborough in Dec 1914, and Apr 1916, as well as the activities of German Zeppelins, there were enough men to be released for the Western Front should they give their consent to overseas service. Fred was one of these and joined the 1/1st East Riding Field Company, Royal Engineers, attached to 3rd Division in France. Later known as the 529th (East Riding) Field Company, RE. Fred saw service at the Somme in 1916, at Arras and Passchendaele in 1917 and the retreats of Mar 1918. In May-Jun 1918 Fred was, according to the Beverley Guardian of 22 Jun 1918, badly wounded and sent to the Base Hospital. Fred was awarded the War and Victory Medals.
Fred moved away from Beverley to the Neath area in South Wales where he worked as a carpenter at a tin works. His brother, Richard S Pape a clerk who also served in the Royal Engineers, also lived in this area for some time. Fred married Violet Hilda Truscott in Barnstaple, Devon in 1921. She was originally from Kidwelly, Pembrokeshire but had lived for over ten years before the war in Walkington where both of her parents were schoolteachers. Fred died in Neath, aged 72 on 22 Aug 1956.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |