Family :

Education & Career :

Farmer, Whitton (1900).

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

31 July - 10 November 1917. By the summer of 1917 the British Army was able for the first time to fight on its chosen ground on its terms. Having secured the southern ridges of Ypres at Messines in June, the main attack started on 31st July 1917 accompanied by what seemed like incessant heavy rain, which coupled with the artillery barrages conspired to turn much of the battlefield into a bog. Initial failure prompted changes in the high command and a strategy evolved to take the ring of ridges running across the Ypres salient in a series of 'bite and hold' operations, finally culminating in the capture of the most easterly ridge on which sat the infamous village of Passchendaele. The Official History carries the footnote ?The clerk power to investigate the exact losses was not available? but estimates of British casualties range from the official figure of 244,000 to almost 400,000. Within five months the Germans pushed the British back to the starting line, which was where they had been since May 1915.

Detail :

Frederic Snow was one of six men of 166 Siege Battery RGA who were killed on 26th September 1917. One of the other men of 166 Battery who was killed that day was Bro. Gunner John Gilpin BUTCHER of Holmesdale Lodge No 874. 166 Siege Battery was attached to the ANZAC 1st Corps 66 Heavy Artillery Group providing artillery support to Australian and British troops during the advance on Polygon Wood during the Third Battle of Ypres. (Bro. Private John Hunter of Nanango Lodge 2873 was amongst the Australian troops killed on the 26th during the attack on Polygon Wood). The battery was only engaged in SOS responses and it seems possible that it was hit by German counter battery shelling.

Fred Snow was a member of St Luke's Lodge No 225 and was made a Junior Warden a few months before he died. He is commemorated by the lodge when it meets close to Remembrance Day each year. He was the only member of his lodge to die in action during the war. His obituary in the Ipswich Paper of that time states that "......he was the son of the late Mr Septimus Snow, who formerly practiced as a dentist in London before coming to reside in Ipswich. Gunner Snow was an active member of the St Luke s Lodge (No. 225) of Freemasons, and at the date of joining the forces occupied the office of sword bearer. He had been seven years previously in the RGA and volunteered for service in October 1914, going out to France in September 1916.... The local newspaper report is substantially correct and he would have been the Inner Guard (not sword bearer) before promotion to Junior Warden. His father was also a freemason.

The position of the battery on 25th and 26th September has been confirmed. Anybody who visits Hooge Cemetery on the Menin Road outside of Ypres should walk to the South East corner of the cemetery and look to the East. The area in front of you is where the battery was positioned when the men were killed. The following has been provided by W.Bro. Rod Gibson (Suffolk) Gnr. Frederick William Snow. 166th Siege Bty., R.G.A. Killed in Action 26th September 1917. Age 37 The Huts Cemetery, Ypres. Ref: VII. C. 11. Lodge JW The story of Fred Snow and the lodge was published in the Winter 2009 edition of Suffolk Forum. Frederick was the son of Septimus, a Dental Surgeon, and Jane Elizabeth Snow. He was born in Ipswich in 1880. He married Eliza Jane Youngman in 1904. The 1911 census shows them living at Orwell Lodge, Wherstead Road, Ipswich, with a daughter, three sons and a 14 year old servant. He is shown as being of independent means. His father died on 21st July 1907 and probate was granted on 14th October 1907 in the sum of £4,614 8s. 6d. Probate on Frederick's estate was granted on 6th June 1918 in the sum of £4,174 14s. 2d.

Masonic :

Junior Warden

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley