Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-
One of the sons of certified elementary school master John Storey from Newcastle and his Staffordshire born wife Catherine, Fred was born in the spring of 1885 in Meadowfield, Durham. He had an older brother and sister, John and Esther, and three younger brothers, Harry, Herbert and Arthur. Father John died in 1905 and Catherine married the pit deputy George Allison in 1910 and at the 1911 census, Fred, who by now was working at the colliery as a pipe maker, and his three younger brothers were living with their mother and stepfather. At some time, Fred also spent two years as a member of 4th Durham Light Infantry as a volunteer, and at the end of 1912 married Ada Mary Allan.
On 9th July 1914 Fred sailed to Canada on board the Calgarian, making for Calgary and seeking work as a pipemaker, while Ada returned to live with her parents in Carlisle. Fred got as far as Ottawa and stopped there to enlist in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 24th August, just six weeks after he had left home, perhaps inspired by the newly formed regiment’s first formal parade in Ottawa the previous day. With his flat feet and squint in his left eye he became Private 1546 of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry which left Ottawa on 28th August, but didn’t depart from Canada until the end of September. Crossing the Atlantic on board the SS Royal George with the rest of the first Canadian contingent on their arrival in England they were billeted in Bustard Camp on Salisbury Plain.
The PPCLI left Southampton for France on 20th December 1914 to be the first Canadian unit on the battlefield. But in Boulogne Fred went before a Medical Board and because of his defective sight was classified as fit for non combatant service only and remained at the Canadian Base Depot. He did make it to the front line the next year and on 8th May during the fighting at Bellewaerde Lake during the Battle of Frezenberg he was reported missing and presumed to have died from his wounds.
Private 1546 Fred Storey has no known grave and is remembered at the Menin Gate Memorial.
Frederick Storey is remembered in Meadowfield on M50.01 and M50.05
In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance
Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Storey