| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Frederick Ruston was born in Beverley the 4 Dec 1893 and baptised at Beverley Minster five days later, the son of John Ruston and Louisa (nee Massander). John had been a farm labourer but on moving to Beverley became a tanner’s labourer. Frederick became a tanner’s labourer though was noted in the 1911 census as being a “glue works labourer”. He had attended St Mary’s Boys’ School, Beverley and was a member of the Oddfellows Friendly Society. He was unmarried.
Frederick enlisted in Beverley the 22 Jan 1916 and embarked for France on 22 Jul 1916. He served as a private in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, the 9th Battalion. In Belgium on 6 Oct 1917 he received serious gunshot wounds to his face, arm and thigh. Upon recovery he was transferred to the East Yorkshire Regiment, 1st Battalion. The 1st were heavily involved in the One Hundred Days Offensive in the summer and autumn of 1918. On 4 Sep 1918 Fred was reported as missing, in fact he had received unknown wounds and had been taken prisoner. There are no International Red Cross records for Fred but the War Office did receive notice that he been taken to Lamsdorf POW camp in Germany and died of his wounds there on 24 Sep 1918. He was posthumously awarded the War and Victory Medals. He was buried locally but after the end of the war reburied at the South Western Cemetery in Berlin.
Frederick is commemorated on the Hengate Memorial and the East Riding Memorial in Beverley Minster. He is also on the street shire for St Andrew Street, along with his brother Albert Ruston who had also spent time in a German POW camp in 1918.
Includes information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |