In our mobile society, it is difficult to realise the strong family links within our village a century ago. A glance at the 1901 census shows many families with the same surnames – brothers, sisters, cousins, parents, grandparents. Abbiss, Walker, Burton, Buckett, Reynolds, Weedon, but none as plentiful as Baines. These large family connections give an idea of how strongly the death of any villager – especially those of young men being killed on foreign fields - bit into the Pirton community.

The commonness of names can also make it difficult it to trace the identity of some men on our war memorial; confusion and error can easily come about. This is nowhere as clearly shown as with Fred Baines, the twenty-seventh name on the Pirton War Memorial, killed just three weeks before the end of the Great War, age 24.

In 1881, living in Bury End (now number 11) were Edwin and Annis. Baines. One of their eight children was Ruth, born in 1875. Remarkably, six more children were born to Annis making 14 in all. With father an unskilled agricultural worker and mother a strawplaiter, it must have been hard to sustain such a large family. Not surprisingly Ruth, the third born, left home soon after finishing at school and became a domestic servant to a family in Hornsey, North London. Still only 19 she gave birth to her first child in 1894. He was baptised as Frederick Baines at St. Mary’s Church, Pirton.

Living in the Burge End area of the village was Charles Cooper, one of eight children, born in the same year as Ruth. We can be sure they knew each other throughout their time in the village school. In 1898 Ruth and Charles were married. Ruth’s son Fred was four and we can assume that Charles was his father. By 1901 there were two other children, Arthur and Dorothy, and on the census of 1901 Fred’s surname appears as Cooper. Whether this was an assumption by the census officer or a preference expressed by the parents one does not know; what we do know is that on all other records seen he is Frederick Baines, bearing his mother’s maiden name.

On leaving school, or soon afterwards, Fred took up a job at Bowmans Station corn mill in Hitchin (situated where B & Q now stands). Redhouse, a Stotfold building company had built this mill in Hitchin for James Bowman and Sons in 1902.

Like many of his contemporaries, Fred soon showed his patriotism, and probably a desire to see a part of the world far removed from the quietness of Pirton, a village that had barely changed in the previous century. Life was hard at home and prospects were few. Thus, while still working at Bowmans Mill, he joined the Hitchin Company of the Territorials in February 1914,

Britain has a long history of organising local, voluntary bodies and reforms of 1908 organised local volunteers into the Territorial Force. Following the models of the regular army the TF was composed of volunteers, men who would train as soldiers on a part-time basis. Fred certainly started in this way, but with the declaration of war only six months later he was thrown into a different kind of army altogether. He went to France with the first contingent of men in the autumn of 1914. He was now Private G/15609 Frederick Baines of the 8th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment, a battalion formed at Chichester in 1914 but taking men from many parts of the country

Unfortunately, we know nothing of Fred Baines activities during the next four years. The Sussex Regiment became widely scattered with battalions on the North West Frontier of India, in Gallipoli, Egypt and Palestine and Russia as well as in France and Flanders. In all, the Regiment lost 6,800 members whose names are recorded in the Regimental Chapel of St George in Chichester Cathedral. The name of Private Frederick Baines is carried there for all time.

It seems highly likely that Fred’s war was spent in Flanders and France with just the occasional leave back to his home on Great Green; perhaps spending an evening with the few chums that remained in the village. With each visit he would have heard of the death of more of his former Pirton mates, yet as the demise of the Germans became increasingly evident, his parents, Ruth and George, must have begun to think that Fred would survive. He had been at war for nearly four years. Yet it was not to be, although it seems that his family did not learn of his death until after the War.

In October 1918 the fighting continued to rage on the Western Front and on 17th of that month the allies launched a massive attack on a nine-mile front finally reaching the River Selle near Le Cateau; an area between the rivers Somme and Oise. The river was crossed and the allies advanced. There is no firm evidence, but it is likely that Private Baines was involved in this offensive. However, after days of desperate fighting, Fred Baines and some of his mates were sleeping when an enemy shell made a direct hit on their resting place. Death was instantaneous on that night of Wednesday 23rd October, 1918. The dreadful irony of this whole offensive was that this major and final British push of the war ended up at Mons, exactly where the British Expeditionary Force first saw action in 1914. Fred Baines may have been involved in that, too.

Private Baines and the others killed by that shell hit were buried together at the Highland Cemetery, Le Cateau, Nord, France, (Ref IV C 9). Several other local men who were with Fred when he was killed, survived. Ron Albon, a nephew of Fred and living in Davis Crescent tells how he met one of these survivors in Stevenage many years later.

Following the death of each soldier it fell to some officer or colleague to pen the letter home. In the letter that eventually reached Pirton Second Lieutenant G Bannell wrote that Pte Fred Baines was “an exceptionally good man, and always did his duty as a soldier.” His commanding officer, Lieut. Colonel Bertram J Walker, said that “Pte Baines upheld the excellent reputation of the Battalion. He met his death while fighting for a great and just cause: he and many others are unable to see the result of their great labours and sacrifice.”

But news took a long time to reach Pirton from the chaos that reigned on the Western Front. The war ended just three weeks after Fred Baines was killed. The celebrations throughout the land, not least in Pirton, rang out. Fred’s parents must have breathed a sigh of relieve when they heard the war was over yet waited anxiously for news from him and of his homecoming. It seems it was not until the middle of December that they heard the dreaded news. The news would have swept round the village bringing an abrupt end to many for rejoicing. In the Hitchin Express just after Christmas a brief obituary of Private Fred Baines appeared: “The painful news is now published for the first time.”

The soldiers of the Royal Sussex Regiment who died in the First and Second World Wars are commemorated in St George's Chapel, which is one of two chapels on the south side of the nave of Chichester Cathedral. The names of the soldiers who died in the First World War are painted on hinged wooden panels contained within a number of oak cupboards. The names are listed by battalion and by rank. The inscription for Frederick Baines is on the panels for the 8th Battalion and reads:

15609 BAINES . F

Baines, Frederick born Pirton, Herts, enlisted Pirton,
G/15609 Pte, killed in action B.E.F. 23.10.1918

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*** For help with this article we thank Clare Baines, Ron Albon, Denise Marshall, Helen Hofton, and the two Pirton books (‘Foot on Three Daisies’ and ’ Portrait of Pirton’. Hitchin Museum and Mike Bradbury (Head of Information Chichester Cathedral), Lynda Smith www.roll-of-honour.com, Jonty Wild www.pirton.org.uk.

Points of contact are:
Pirton Website Jonty Wild via jontywild@pirton.org.uk

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