53rd (Young Soldier) Battalion, Hampshire Regiment
Frederick Sidney Argent was born in 1900 at Forest Gate in the West Ham district of East London. His parents were James Argent, an engineer fitter, born in Bethnal Green in 1858 and his wife Alice, who was born in Ashleworth in 1861. The couple had eight children, of whom seven were living by the time of the 1911 Census.
At the time that census was taken the family were living at 22 Sylvan Road, Forest Gate and father James was employed as an engineer fitter with a small arms manufacturer.
Frederick would have been liable for conscription upon reaching his eighteenth birthday in 1918 and after a further month was posted to the 53rd (Young Soldier) Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment. This was an initial training battalion, before conscripts moved to a Graduated Battalion and following that were posted overseas to an active service unit.
It would appear that he was not long into his training before he died of pneumonia (possibly a victim of ‘Spanish Influenza’) at Fargo Military Hospital, Larkhill, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, on 3 November 1918, aged 18. A recently released Pension Record Card gives the cause of death and a death notice in the Gloucestershire Echo of 13 November 1918 the location. This states that he was the youngest son of Mr and Mrs Argent of 6 Oxford Street, Gloucester. His mother qualified for a dependant’s pension.
His remains were brought to Ashleworth, where he was buried in the New Burial Ground on 8 November 1918 and a standard CWGC headstone marks his grave.
His brother, Reginald Arthur Argent was conscripted on 1 September 1916 but was discharged from the 3rd Battalion, London Regiment on 11 May 1917, due to sickness and did not serve abroad.
Sidney’s mother went to live in Essex after the war and died in 1936. She too came to be buried in the Ashleworth New Burial Ground.
Researched by Graham Adams 11 March 2020