Frederick Ernest Latter (1887-1916)

Post date: Sep 15, 2015 6:14:17 PM

When Frederick was born there were families of Latters living in Canon Lane, Pizien Well and Tonbridge Road as well as the family of Horace and Emily Latter living in Upper Mill/Mill Lane into which he was born in 1887. Altogether his mother, Emily had 12 children born alive but by 1911 only 7 were surviving. At the time of the 1891 Census Frederick was living with his parents and 3 older and 2 younger siblings. He attended Wateringbury School. Horace his father, born in East Farleigh, was a farm labourer and by 1901 at the age of 14 Frederick already had followed in his father's footsteps. In 1911 he was still single, now aged 24 and a farm labourer living at home with his parents and 3 siblings (aged 18,21 and 30) in a 4 room cottage, one of 7 described by the census as Upper Mill between the Thatched House (then called the Thatched Cottage) and May Lodge (now Broomsdown).

The details of his military record are not available, other than his service number was G/4103 and he was in the 6^th Battalion of Royal West Kent Regiment, the same regiment as his near neighbour, Lieutenant Henry Francis Bingham Stevens of The Beck. However, coming from 2 different social classes, it is possible that Henry and Frederick did not even know each other and as Henry was killed in September 1915 they may not have overlapped in the battalion. Frederick does not make the vicar's June 1915 list of men serving. The origins of the 6^th Battalion, part of the 37^th Brigade in the 12th Division, are noted at the article on this site about the Royal West Kent 6^th Battalion.

Captain C.T. Atkinson's The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment 1914-1919 (published 1924) (pages 184 to 188 excluding maps) gives the following account of the 6^th Battalion during the day of Frederick's death, 3^rd July 1916, the third day of the Somme offensive :

Meanwhile another battalion of The Queen's Own had taken part in the attack. The Twelfth Division had been in reserve on July 1^st, but as the Eighth Division on the left of the Third Corps, to which the Twelfth belonged, had suffered heavily and made little progress in its attack on Ovillers La Boiselle¹, the Twelfth relieved it on the night of July 1^st/2^nd. Thus the 6^th R.W.K. found themselves in the front trenches with orders to resume the attack early on July 3^rd. The position it had taken over lay just West of the ruins of Ovillers and the task assigned to the 37^th Brigade was the capture of two small salients in the German front line, which ran almost due N. and S. To its right the 35^th Brigade was also attacking E. and at the same time a larger attack was to be delivered further to the right in a Northerly direction against the line Contalmaison-Mametz Wood, and it was hoped that the two attacks would ultimately unite and cut off the German garrisons still clinging desperately to Ovillers and La Boiselle. But the task before the 37^th Brigade was one of no small difficulty. Much of the German wire had escaped destruction by the bombardment, and the two salients to be attacked by the Queen's and the battalion respectively were separated by a stretch of uncut wire 300 yards long, while an even longer belt to the left of the Northernmost salient, the one which the battalion was attacking, put an extension of the attack to that flank out of the question. The Royal Fusiliers, who were opposite this frontage, were told off to give covering fire from rifles and machine-guns, and a smoke barrage had been arranged for the protection of this flank, but the prospect of enfilade fire was a serious menace.

The attack was to be delivered by A and C Companies, the former under Captain Barnett on the right, the latter under Captain Hatton on the exposed left flank. Their objective was the German front line, but after capturing it they were to bomb along the trench to both flanks, A having to connect up with the 6^th Queen's, C to reach a junction with a communication trench which was to be secured and a double-block erected. Meanwhile B and D under Captains H.C. Harris and Matthews were to pass through A and C and assault the German second line about 300 yards further on. The attack was then to be carried on by the East Surreys, whose objective was a third line of trenches, just North of Ovillers.

It was still dark when at 3.15 a.m.² the barrage lifted off the German front line and A and C dashed forward. They were met by heavy machine-gun fire, but it failed to stop them, and without a check they were into the German trench and had killed, taken or driven off its defenders, mostly machine-gunners. 2^nd Lieut. Coombs led the way with magnificent gallantry: he was the first man of C into the trench, shot down a German who was about to shoot his company commander, and promptly started bombing and clearing the dug-outs. A company was equally successful, although Captain Barnett was killed after reaching the German trench, and its bombers at once began pushing along to the right with considerable success. Unluckily in the darkness the left platoons of C had gone too far to the left and had come up against uncut wire. Some men managed to win through this and forced their way into the trench but the majority , including the two platoon commanders, 2nd Lieuts. Montagu and P.V. Roberts, were shot down, and the loss in this way of a specially-selected bombing squad severely handicapped the company's efforts to bomb Northward along the trench and secure the junction with the communication trench. However, the first objective had been secured on a frontage of about 250 yards, and A and C opened a heavy fire on the German second line to cover the advance of the second wave of the attack.

As A and B came charging gallantly forward they were scourged with machine-gun fire from the flanks, and lost so terribly from this that they altogether lacked the weight needed to carry out their task. Moreover, they had been delayed by the congestion in the British trenches, and by the time they reached the German front trench the barrage had already lifted off the second line, which was their objective, and it could be seen that his trench was thickly manned. But forlorn hope as an attack was, Captain Matthews never hesitated and led the remnants of D Company forward into a perfect hail of bullets , only to be shot down after covering a few yards. His courage found a parallel in the gallantry with which 2nd Lieut. Latimer, a subaltern recently joined from Rugby, dashed forward ahead of his men, pushed through the wire on the left of the salient and stood up on the German parapet to cheer his men on and point them out the way, till he fell shot through the head.

After the failure of the supports to reach the German second line the survivors of the attack put up a most gallant fight to retain the gains in the front line. Their position was precarious and isolated. The Queen's, on the right, had come up against uncut wire , in front of which they were mown mercilessly down, only a handful getting through into the German trenches. Thus the 6^th were without support on the right and were soon hard pressed on that flank, while on the left a strong point at the junction with the communication trench held up C Company's bombers. They were cut off from reinforcements by the enfilade fire of the machine-guns which swept No Man's Land. Several times the men in the German trench saw parties starting out to dash across the open with ammunition and bags of Bombs, but time after time the machine-guns caught them, and it was only by dodging from shell-hole to shell-hole that a very few ever reached their goal. Communication was hard to keep up: a telephone wire was run across but was promptly cut, though a few messages were taken to and fro by runners. Moreover, the bombardment had only too effectually damaged the German front line and it gave but little protection to those trying to consolidate it or to carry on a fire-fight against the Germans manning the second line and the communication trenches.

But bad as was the situation, the 6^th put up a splendid fight. 2^nd Lieut. Buckle behaved with conspicuous courage and disregard of safety, walking up and down along the German parapet to direct the fire of his men. He was ordered to get down into the trench, but persisted nevertheless until at last he was hit and killed. Srgt. Knight of C Company, seeing many of the bomb-carriers shot down in the effort to cross No Man's Land, leapt out of the trench under heavy fire and fetched in two bags of bombs from a fallen carrier, but was himself hit in the head and killed just as he regained the trench. Sergt. Brown and Corpl. Hooker, both of A Company, were also conspicuous by their courage and fine example, and for several hours the 6^th stuck tenaciously to to their gains, keeping the Germans at bay. Captain Hatton, the senior officer in the captured trenches-for Captain Harris had been killed leading B Company across No Man's Land -had impressed on his men that the Colonel's explicit orders were that ground taken must be held to the last, and the men responded splendidly. While bombs and ammunition held out they held stubbornly on. But casualties were heavy, the men using the parados of the German trench as their fire position were terribly exposed to the machine-guns, and before long Captain Hatton had only men enough for a couple of bombing squads, one at each end of his line, whom he and his servant managed to keep supplied with bombs by moving up and down the trench to collect bombs off the casualties. When things had reached this pass the end could not be longed delayed; Captain Hatton himself was badly wounded about 7 a.m., and a final effort dislodged the few survivors from the trench they had so stoutly defended.

Those few who regained their original trenches spent the rest of the day hanging on there under a heavy shell-fire from the direction of Pozieres. But the Germans did not follow them up, they were content to have recovered their own trenches, and that evening the remnants of the 6^th were withdrawn to Bouzincourt. The losses had been terrible: 617 officers and men had gone into action, 375 were casualties.

The Battalion's War Diary is available at the National Archives, reference WO95/1861/3 and the following is a transcription of its entry for 3^rd July 1916:

WALTNEY STREET TRENCH At 12.15 a.m. received orders for the attack, Bⁿ left front battalion 6th Buff in support. At 3.15 a.m. ² assaulted the German trenches A & C Companies in front who had to take the first line, B & D Companies behind to take second German line. On bombarment ceasing A & C rushed the first line &took them with very little losses . B & D charged past them but only a few elements of these two companies reached the second line. A counter attack by the Germans drove back the remnants of the battalion as the supporting Bⁿ who had lost direction gave no assistance. Casualties: 3 captains killed 11 subalterns³ wounded 5 subalterns missing. OR killed wounded & missing 375. Strength of battalion going into action 617. names of officers killed Capt L de B Banett, ? L.W. Mathews & H.C. Harris. Wounded Lieuts H.G.C Mann, C.J. Ashton, E.S. Martyn, J.A.Smith, W.G.Montague, C.S. Coombs, P.V. Roberts, E.N. Allen, G.T. Carre, J.J. Kneafsey, & H.J.H. Harris . Missing Lt. G.A.J. .Hatton, 2Lt J.H.Hughes, H. Latimer, B.V.Wood & C.C.C.Buckle.

Trench heavily shelled. Relieved by 7th East Surrey Regt & marched to BOZINCOURT RESERVE TRENCHES to rest & reorganise.

Frederick is one of 72,000 commemorated on The Thiepval Memorial (including from Wateringbury: Frederick Adams, William Cowlard, George Datlen, Albert Herbert, William Butchers, Thomas Weller, Lewis Newman and George Pearce) , on the D73, next to the village of Thiepval, off the main Bapaume to Albert road (D929). He is on pier and face 11 C.

Notes:

1. Ovillers-la-Boiselle is to NE of Albert to the left of the D929 Albert-Bapaume road. It is very close to Lochnagar Crater.

2. 3.15 a.m. was much earlier than the timing of the initial assault on 1st July at 7.30 a.m. which was a compromise with the French for the co-ordinated assault on that date. The earlier time gave the cover of darkness but prevented artillery spotting.

3.Subaltern is used to describe commissioned officers below the rank of captain and generally comprises the various grades of lieutenant..