Sergeant 200344 Fred Shore MM, 4th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment, (formerly No. 1905)
Fred Shore was born in Stokesley in 1894, the son of William Shore/Rafferty and Elizabeth Carter.
See Shore A. for more details of the family.
In 1911 Fred was living with his family in North Road, Stokesley, where he was recorded as an apprentice bricklayer, which backs up the statement in the Book of Remembrance that Fred was a bricklayer at the outbreak of war. The book also tells us that he was already a member of the 4th Yorkshire Territorial Army. According to the index card to his awards, Fred first enlisted as a Private, with the Regimental Number 1905. The 4th Yorks Territorial Army was in Wales on manoeuvres as war approached, and returned home to await orders. They were mobilised on 4th August 1914 in Northallerton. The terms of enlistment to the "Terriers" meant that they could not be sent to fight overseas, but moves were soon afoot to have this changed. In the meantime, the $th Yorkshires underwent months of intensive training. Apparently the force volunteered for foreign service, and they were sent to France in April 1915.
Their arrival coincided with a fierce German offensive, and instead of the customary month of final training, the Terriers were sent into the line.
Fred Shore was not with them for theses early engagements, and we know from the index to his medal awards that he arrived on 9th October, 1915. He soon proved himself a courageous soldier. We do not know when he was promoted because his service records do not appear to have survived, but former service in the Territorials would have marked him out as an experienced soldier and a good prospective NCO, even without his courage in the face of the enemy.
Fred Shore was awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous bravery near Martinpuich, on the Somme front on 15th September 1916. (The Military Medal had been established as recently as 25th March 1916 and was awarded to non-commissioned personnel for “gallantry and devotion to duty” and bravery in battle on land. The award was later backdated to 1914). The action in which Fred distinguished himself was part of the Battle of Flers-Courcelette (on the Somme) at which tanks were used for the first time in war.
Sergeant Shore died near Arras seven months later, on 21st April 1917, during the British offensive there. The Germans had retreated to the Hindenberg Line, a planned withdrawal to strongly defended positions from where they were able to hold off further attacks and even mount a counter-attack of their own. Sergeant Shore's death took place in a lull in these major operations, a sober reminder that soldiers continued to die from the general attritional fighting even during relatively "quiet" periods.
Sergeant Fred Shore was 23 years old when he fell, and he was awarded the Victory Medal the British War Medal and the 1915 Star as well as the Military Medal. His body lies in Plot B4 of the Hibers Trench Cemetery, Wancourt, Pas de Calais. According to the Book of Remembrance one of his older brothers was present at his funeral.
He was one of seven brothers who fought in the war, of whom three fell.
Go to next soldier: Shore W.
Back to The Fallen - the Dead of 1914-18
