116th Battalion badge

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

Frederick was born on 4th November 1890 whilst his father Ralph was working as a labourer on the Wilkinson farm, Swinburn House, in Heighington. Ten years later the 1901 census shows that the Gouldsbrough family now owned their own farm in Heighington and of Frederick’s seven siblings, Thomas, Alfred, Annie, Louise, Margaret, Ruth, Wilfred, all bar Thomas the eldest, were still living at home. By 1911 the family had taken over Orchard Farm in Thorpe Thewles and all the family were working on the farm.

On 14th April 1913 Fred arrived in Canada, making for Toronto and work as a farm labourer. By February 1916 he was working as a farmer when he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Toronto, becoming Private 678827 of the 169th Battalion under the command of Lieut-Col. J. C. Wright, and naming his mother, Jane (nee Hall) in Thorpe Thewles as his next of kin. The Battalion embarked for England on the SS Mauretania arriving on 5th November and a posting to Bramshott Camp, Hampshire. Transferred to the 116th Battalion, based at Witley Camp, Surrey, on 11th February 1917 it disembarked in Boulogne to become part of the 9th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Division.

Following two weeks training at Haillicourt the battalion was split up, the object of this being to give the Battalion training in actual warfare with men who were already experienced in work on the front line. By the end of the month the 116th reassembled at Houdain, where it was generally conceded that trench warfare did not have all the advantages the instructors at Bramshott had claimed. In April Fred was one of about 200 men of the battalion who had their pay stopped for “mutilating their greatcoats”. Having encountered mud in the trenches, they had followed the advice of their experienced counterparts and cut their coats shorter with an army jack knife to keep them out of the mud, an alteration not approved of by their C.O.

After the fighting at Vimy Ridge the whole battalion helped in the reconstruction of the Lens-Arras road and then found themselves detailed as the reserve Battalion for the Brigade, with the result that by the middle of July they had not been engaged in any action. That changed on the night of 22nd July; a report after the attack read “Early this morning our troops carried out a minor enterprise S.E. of Avion. The first objective was easily captured, but heavy fighting ensued at the railway embankment. After a severe struggle the whole of the German garrison was either killed or captured and all their dug outs were destroyed, about fifty or sixty Germans are reported to have been taken. Our total casualties are believed to be about the same as the number of German prisoners. The enemy’s losses were heavy”.

One of those “dangerously wounded” was Frederick Gouldsbrough and he was taken to #6 Casualty Clearing Station where he died from his wounds on 28th July 1917

.Frederick Gouldsbrough is remembered in Thorpe Thewles on T56.01, although his name is misspelt as Goldsborough.

In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Gouldsbrough