This man is a candidate for addition to Keighley’s Supplementary Volume under the proposal to add further names in 2024, the centenary of the original roll of honour.
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Supported by the National Lottery’s Heritage Fund, our project intends to submit about 120 names for peer review to add them to the book which is kept at Keighley Library. The unveiling of the book with it’s new names is planned for November 2024, 100 years after the unveiling of the original war memorial.
Private. 2/7th Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment. Service number 306868.
Private Fred Nixon
Early life:
Fred was born in Barnsley in 1896 and registered there in the second quarter of the year. Parents Oscar and Selina Nixon. In 1901 he was five and living at 23, Albion Square in Keighley with parents, four sisters and two brothers. Oscar was an ironfounder’s labourer.
In the years leading up to the next census the family lived at a few houses, namely 30 Colne Street 1904 to 1906, 7 Hill Street from 1907 to 1908 and then moved to 4, Damems in 1909 which were all part of Keighley South Ward. The first two no longer exist but were located close to where the Oakworth Road Medical centre is today.
By the 1911 census, Fred was fifteen and the family were established at 4, Damems, with his parents, two sisters and four brothers. His father Oscar was still an iron foundry worker and Fred was a cotton spinner and he also worked at the iron foundry Messrs., Smith & Marks in Keighley for a while before the war.
War service:
By the time he was nineteen, Fred’s family had moved to 21, Vale Mill Lane in Haworth and were living there when he attested with the West Riding Regiment at Keighley sometime around April 1916. He went out to the front in France in early 1917.
War diary for the 2nd/7th Battalion West Riding Regiment in November 1917:
LECHELLE – BERTINCOURT LINE. November 27.
At 6.20 am (zero hour) 27th November the battalion moved forward from it’s forming up line on the road to a position behind the 2/6 West Riding regiment. they were very soon held up by machine gun fire and our battalion pushed through them until it eventually near the Factory there was heavy machine gun fire from the Railway Cutting. At 3.45 pm the Germans counter attacked from the West and North and at the same time the 2/7 West Yorks were driven back on our right. As there appeared to be little chance of holding these positions which were in a very thick part of the wood, the order was given to withdraw gradually to the old German line, which was well forward of our original line and gave a good field of fire and good observation. That night the line was taken over by the 4th Cavalry Battalion and the Battalion moved back into support and stayed there until relieved the next night (28th) by the 18th London Regiment.
Casualties in this period: 1 officer killed and 5 officers were wounded. 42 other ranks were killed; 143 other ranks wounded; 4, wounded and missing; 2, believed killed; 2, died of wounds; 2, shell shock and 9 were missing.
Fred was wounded on 28th November and transferred to St John’s Hospital at Etaples. He died of his wounds three weeks later on 20th December. He was twenty one years of age and buried in grave 7, row D, of plot XXXI at Etaples Military Cemetery in France. The family inscription reads: “Rest In Peace.”
Keighley News December 15, 1917 page 3:
Private Fred Nixon, West Riding Regiment, has been admitted to hospital in France seriously wounded. He has been at the front about two and a half years, and before enlisting was employed by Messrs Mark & Smith, iron founders, Keighley. His home is at 21, Vale Mill Lane, Oakworth.
Keighley News December 29, 1917 page 3:
Private Fred Nixon, West Riding Regiment, who was wounded on November 28 last, died on December 20. He went into the fighting line in France eleven months ago, Before enlisting he was employed by Messrs. Smith, Marks & Co., Greengate, Keighley.
Post war:
Fred was posthumously awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal for his war service. These would have gone to his mother who was his next of kin and sole legatee in his will.
She would also have received any personal effects, and Great War memorial plaque and scroll inscribed with his name and his remaining back pay which amounted to £7 16s 5d on 26th June 1918.
She also received a war gratuity of £7 10s 0d on 2nd March 1920.
Fred is named on the Cross Roads memorial in Cross Roads Park.
His brother Tom Nixon was killed in action on March 3, 1917.
Oscar and Selina were still living at 21, Vale Mill Lane in the 1921 census.
Information sources:
England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915
1901 England Census
1911 England Census
WWI War Diaries (France, Belgium and Germany), 1914-1920
Keighley News records at Keighley Library
Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929
British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920
WWI Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920
1921 Census Of England & Wales
