Second panel, Kew Gardens War Memorial D – M C.L. Digoy to P.T. Martin Image: Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens Project
Sergeant Frederick Honey, G/20245, 8th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment or the Buffs (East Kent) Regiment, ‘died of wounds’ 17 April 1917, aged 28.
He is buried at Grave Reference I. K. 16, Chocques Military Cemetery. This was located next to No.1 Casualty Clearing Station for casualties from the Bethune area.
Chocques Military Cemetery (Image source: CWGC)
He is listed as the son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Honey, of 64, Alexandra Rd., Richmond; husband of Ellen May Honey, of 17, Darell Rd., Richmond, Surrey.
His CWGC entry mentions no inscription chosen by family on his headstone, which is pictured on the TWGPP website.
He is mentioned in a list of “Gangers, labourers and boys” in Kew’s 1914 staff list and as one of “six Members of the labouring staff killed in action” in the Kew Guild Journal 1919 Roll of Honour.
8th Battalion East Surrey Regiment WW1
The 8th (Service) Battalion landed at Boulogne-sur-Mer as part of the 55th Brigade in the 18th (Eastern) Division in July 1915 also for service on the Western Front.
The battalion fought at the Battle of Loos and the Battle of the Somme.
One particular incident will always be remembered. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916, B Company of the 8th Battalion went into the attack dribbling two footballs which the Company Commander, Captain Wilfred Nevill, had bought for his platoons to kick across No Man’s Land.
Captain Nevill and many of his men were killed during the advance, but the 8th Surreys were one of the few battalions to reach and hold their objective on this day. The ‘Football Attack’ caught the imagination of the country, and illustrations of it are shown in the Regimental Museum, which also contains one of the footballs used. On that day, the 8th Battalion won two DSOs, two MCs, two DCMs and nine MMs, but 446 officers and men were killed or wounded.
Frederick Honey, remembered 100 years later, 17 April 1917 / 2017.
On Ancestry U.K. one family tree entry for Frederick Alfred Honey lists him on the 1911 census as a Gardener’s Labourer (Board Of Agriculture). There is also a photograph of him with his brother Christopher Thomas Honey, Royal Garrison Artillery, who died of wounds in France on 12 June 1917.
A double loss for this family.
Blogposted by Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens project, Newquay Zoo.
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