Fred Hather

War Service

A lifetime in the mines did not appeal to Fred. At the age of 22, on Monday 2 July 1900, he travelled to Leeds and joined the army. Records show that in 1901 Fred was a Private in the 7th Hussars and in March of that year a patient in the Military Hospital in Aldershot, Hampshire. Records show that Fred had seen action in the South African Campaign (The Second Boer War 1899 – 1902).
When the First World War broke out Fred was serving with the 20th Hussars stationed at Colchester, where the regiment had been since 1911. After arriving in France on the 18 August 1914 the regiment was one of the first into battle, taking part in action during the Battle of Mons and the retreat, the First Battle of the Marne and the First Battle of the Aisne in September 1914. The regiment went on to fight in the First Battle of Ypres in October 1914.
When and where Fred became another casualty of the war is unknown, but along with hundreds of his comrades, he was transported away from the battlefield to hospital in the French port of Boulogne. Fred died of his wounds in the 11 General Hospital, Boulogne on 27 November 1914, at the age of 36 years. Fred was the first soldier from Altofts to pay the ultimate price.
Boulogne was one of three base ports most extensively used by the Commonwealth armies on the Western Front throughout the First World War and Boulogne was one of the chief hospital areas.
Fred now lies in the Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, which contains 5,577 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and 224 from the Second World War.

Family Life

Fred was born in Altofts on 26 June 1878, the fifth child of Jabez and Sarah Hather. Jabez and Sarah had moved to the area from Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire respectively. At the time of Fred’s birth Jabez was working as a coal miner and in 1881 Fred, aged 2 years, lived at 99 Portland Street, Altofts with his parents and older siblings John William, Seth, Eli and Annie, followed by Fred’s younger sister Maud in 1890.

Boulogne Eastern Cemetery