Frederick Proud HERD

SEDBERGH SCHOOL ARCHIVES

(Courtesy of Sedbergh School Archive and Heritage Centre)

SEDBERGH SCHOOL REGISTER 1910

1840 – Herd, Frederick Proud: (Day Boy), brother of No. 1722; born December 14th, 1897; left July, 1915. Great War:– Private, West Riding Regt. Killed in action September 26th, 1917.

‘The Westmorland Gazette’ (10 November 1917)

(Kindly supplied by Sedbergh & District History Society)

HOWGILL

Last week news was received by Mr. and Mrs. Jas. Herd, Bantygill, that their youngest son, Pte. Fred Proud Herd, was killed on September 26th in Flanders. Pte. Herd, who was 19, joined the Duke of Wellington’s Regt. in September, 1916, but on arriving in France in July, 1917, was transferred to the South Staffordshire Regt. From information received it seems that Pte. Herd met his death in the following manner:– The battle was over and the objectives obtained, when he, along with three others, volunteered to bring in the wounded. Whilst engaged on this errand the whole party were killed by the bursting of a shell. Pte. Herd was educated at Howgill School, and gained a scholarship at Sedbergh Grammar School, from whence he obtained a situation in the Kirkby Lonsdale branch of the Bank of Liverpool. Two of his brothers are out at the front. On Sunday a memorial service was held in Howgill Church. There was a large congregation. The vicar referred to Pte. Herd as one who was ever ready to help in any work connected with the church, and who had a very keen sense of duty. He exhorted all present to emulate the example set by him. The service closed by the playing of the ‘Dead March.’

‘The Westmorland Gazette’ (10 November 1917)

(Kindly supplied by Sedbergh & District History Society)

HERD – Killed in Flanders whilst acting as volunteer stretcher-bearer, on September 26th, Fred Proud herd, South Staffordshire Regt., youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Jas. Herd, Howgill, Sedbergh, aged 19 years.

SEDBERGH SCHOOL ARCHIVES

(Courtesy of Sedbergh School Archive and Heritage Centre)

The Sedberghian, VOL. XXXVIII. NO 6. DECEMBER, 1917. – Obituary Notes.

FREDERICK PROUD HERD

Private South Staffordshires.

(Killed in Flanders, Sept. 26th, 1917).

Herd came to the School, as a day boy from Howgill, in September 1910, and stayed until the end of the summer term 1915. After leaving School he worked at home and at Keighley for a year, and then followed his two elder brothers into the army, joining the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment. He was transferred to the South Staffs in France, and it appears that he was out with a party searching for wounded when they were all killed by the explosion of a shell. He was a quiet boy of modest character but possessed of that pluck and determination which has marked his family and fellow dalesmen.

THE FIRST WORLD WAR DIARY OF EDMUND HERD, 9th December 1914 to 30th January 1919 by Edmund Brian Herd and John Edmund Herd

(Printed in a series of articles in the ‘Sedbergh Historian’ the annual journal of Sedbergh & District History Society)

[Private Edmund Herd and his brother John (Jack), served in the 1/10th (Scottish) Battalion King's (Liverpool Regiment)]

Extracts from the diary for 1917:

Sep 18 Sent in ambulance to Field Hospital at Poperinghe.

Sep 19-21 Feeling miserable and to make matters worse heard that Battalion or at least some of it, had been in the thick of an attack. Worse still, I heard that Fred, my younger brother (South Staffordshire Regt.) was at Vlamertinghe and I knew that he would be going into the line for the first time. Jack (my other brother) and I had always consoled ourselves with the belief that whatever happened to us Fred would be left.

Sep 23-24 Feeling just a little better but very uneasy about Fred.

Sep 25 Heard that South Staffs were back at Goldfish Chateau so went there and saw Fred for only a short time before he left for the line. His battalion relieved ours in front of Wieltje and the Scottish moved to Watou.

Sep 28 Went to camp at Vlamertinghe to find out if South Staffs were out of the line but they were not. Could get little information. (I remember the suspense was so great that I would have gone to Wieltje had it been possible)

Sep 29 Went again to Vlamertinghe and heard the worst. It was dreadful. He was only 16 when Jack and I enlisted. The Sgt. Major told me that he and another were killed whilst getting a wounded man either in or out of the trench. The battalion had suffered dreadfully. He died on the 26th. I returned to Poperinghe and wrote home.

Oct 4 Moved to Villers Faucon and travelled on small light railway. An amusing journey. The small bogeys rattled and swayed. (Miles of these little railways had been laid down as an alternative means of transport to the roads which Jerry had blown up.) I saw Jack. It was naturally a painful meeting.

Nov 4 Lovely day. Memorial service for Fred in Howgill Church, which was packed.
[Edmund was at home, on leave, during part of November.]

Dec 14 Fred’s birthday. Miserable, miserable and very hungry. Writing again, and inoculated again (this inoculation bothered us a lot because we did not trust Jerry and we were suspicious.)
[Edmund was by now a prisoner of war in Germany. He had been captured on the 30th of November.]

‘The Westmorland Gazette’ (28 September 1918)

(Kindly supplied by Sedbergh & District History Society)

HERD – In loving memory of Pte. Fred Herd, Banty Gill, Howgill, killed in action September 28th, 1917. – Thy will be done.