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48748 Private Fred Mosby
1/5th
Battalion, The West Yorkshire Regiment.
Killed in Action 25th April 1918.
Aged 28 years.
Buried in Sanctuary Wood Cemetery, Zillebeke, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.
Plot III, Row D, Grave 10.
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| The Badge of the West Yorkshire Regiment |
Fred Mosby was born in Barwick in Elmet in 1890 and was the second youngest surviving child of Crispin and
Adelaide Mosby (Nee Wilson). Adelaide was known in the family as Adela. Crispin Mosby was born in Garforth and Adela was from
Barwick.
According to the 1911
Census Adela Mosby had had 12 children of which two had died. One of them, Mary Ann Mosby lived for only 5 weeks in 1872.
He was employed by the Garforth
Colliery Company as a Shunter, his father Crispin also worked at the colliery.
In 1916 Fred Mosby married Annie Hebden
at Garforth Parish Church. They did not have any children.
Annie Mosby married Edgar Thompson, a Banksman at Garforth
Colliery in 1921. Edgar Thompson had served with 10th Battalion the West Yorkshire Regiment and the Army Cyclist Corps, until
his discharge in 1917.
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| The Special Memorial Headstone Dedicated to Pte. Fred Mosby |
Judging by his service number, it appears that Fred Mosby volunteered for the Army in December 1915 shortly
before the introduction of the Military Service Act 1916.
It appears that Fred Mosby’s body was not recovered from the battlefield immediately as he was posted
missing and an announcement to that effect appeared in the Yorkshire Evening Post newspaper on 18th September 1918.
He now lies buried in Sanctuary Wood Cemetery, and although there is a dedicated headstone for him, it cannot be said with
any certainty where in the cemetery his body actually lies. Even at this late stage in the war this area was shelled considerably
and the burials disturbed. Thus many burials in this part of the cemetery have the inscription on the headstone ‘Buried
Near This Spot’.
Also buried in this cemetery is Lt Gilbert Talbot of the Rifle Brigade whose body was recovered
by his brother, the Reverend Neville Talbot who along with Reverend Philip (Tubby) Clayton opened a soldiers’ rest house
in Poperinge in 1915 and named it in memory of Gilbert Talbot. Thus Talbot House was begun, and as a consequence the Toc
H organisation was founded.
There is also a solitary German grave in the cemetery, that of Fliegerhauptmann Hans
Roser who was an observer in a German aircraft, the third shot down by Captain (later Major) Lanoe Hawker RE in a single action.
For this triple victory, Captain Hawker was awarded the Victoria Cross.
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