1st Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment
Frederick Arthur Gordon was born in Croydon on 17 August 1894 but attended the British School in Wotton-under-Edge from September 1900 to June 1908.
He enlisted at Wotton-under-Edge as a Special Reservist, joined the 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment and was sent to France on 19 September 1914.
He was involved in some heavy fighting during the first year of the war and suffered wounds on five different occasions. On 15 October 1915, whilst in action in the Lilles area of France, near to Bethune, he sustained two serious head wounds.
Fred was repatriated to England for treatment and in February 1916 underwent an operation in Torbay hospital, from which he did not recover and died on 22 February 1916, aged just 21 years.
At that time his parents were living in Bristol, so he was buried, with full military honours, in Horfield (Holy Trinity) Churchyard.
He is commemorated on the Roll of Honour in Holy Trinity Church and also on both the Tabernacle Church Roll of Honour in Wotton-under-Edge and the town’s War Memorial.
(From First World War Heroes of Wotton-under-Edge by Bill Griffiths)