My maternal great grandparents had eight children, seven of whom survived to adulthood. Their three sons all joined the forces and fought in WW1, and one was taken Prisoner of War. My grandmother would have been 17 when war broke out; she and the rest of the family no doubt had an anxious time waiting for their ‘boys’ to return. These are the stories of their war and later lives.

Frederick John Fage (1895-1975): Private 201455 Beds Regt.

Fred was the eldest of Elizabeth Sarah Fage, my Nana Brown‘s siblings; he was six when she was born in 1901. His parents William John Fage and Alice Cade married in 1893, and he was born just over a year later. He was living at home with them at the time of the 1901 census. Ten years later he is described as ‘Nephew’ in the household of Jesse Tott and his wife Sarah at London Road, Sandy. Sarah Head was actually his great aunt, sister to his maternal grandmother Ann Head.

He had joined the 7^th Bedfordshire Regiment at some point, as Private 14865. He was 19 at the outbreak of WW1 and transferred to the Bedfordshire Regiment as Private 201455. His full service record has not survived, but his medal card indicates that he was entitled to the 1915 Star, and the Victory and War Medals, and that he first joined the theatre of war on 26 July 1915, posted to the Western Front (1), ie Northern France.

Frederick John Fage Medal Index Card (Ancestry.co.uk)

He would have been away from home towards the end of 1915, when his 11 year old brother Jim Edward Fage died. He appears on the 1918 Absent Voters list (Ancestry.co.uk), as Private, Beds Regt., 201455, registered to vote at London Road, Sandy.

He returned home and married Alexandra May Endersby (known as May) towards the end of 1920. By the 1930s, they and their large family of nine children had moved to 28 Ivel Road, Sandy, the address he gave at the inquest into his father’s accidental death in 1940. He worked as a Market Gardener for most of his life. There are several articles in the British Newspaper Archive at FindMyPast that give glimpses of his life through the 1940s-1960s. He had a bicycle stolen by a soldier during WW2 and another soldier stole some carrots from his allotment. His eldest son and grandson were involved in a near-drowning in the River Ivel in 1949, with Fred pulling his son to safety. His wife reportedly collapsed on hearing news of the accident.

Frederick John Fage, Market Gardener of 28 Ivel Road, Sandy, died on 10 January 1975, and his funeral took place in the Sandy parish church on 15 January. His gross estate was proved at just under £24k. He was 79 years old. His widow died at 111 St Neots Road, Sandy, on 1 June 1986, aged 83.

In total, from their nine children, Frederick John Fage and Alexandra May Endersby had at least 23 grandchildren, my second cousins, and probably many great grandchildren too, although I have not traced that next generation in detail.

Albert Victor Fage (1897-1961): PoW Private 28021 B Co., 1/8 Middlesex Regt.

Nana Brown’s second oldest brother was Albert Victor Fage, born on 17 June 1897. He would have been four years old when she was born. He was perhaps named in honour of Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert; her Diamond Jubilee was celebrated on 22 June, a few days after he was born.

Records at FindMyPast show that he was admitted to Sandy’s St Swithun’s School aged 10 in 1907, his departure record in 1910 showing that he left for ‘field work’ – ie working in the local fields or farms. Perhaps he was in and out of work, as much of it would have been seasonal. On 2 April 1911, at the time of the 1911 census, he is at home with the rest of the family but has no recorded occupation. He was 15 years old when his youngest sister Violet Emma Fage was born in 1913, and 18 when their brother Jim Edward Fage died two years later.

He enlisted in the 1/8^th Middlesex Regiment (B Company) on 10 May 1916, as Private 28021 and was sent to France that August. He was captured by German forces while fighting in Cambrai on 30 November 1917, although it seems that the news of his capture took some time to reach home. The short article (left) in the Biggleswade Chronicle appeared on 4 January 1918.

This browning newspaper cutting kept by my grandmother, his sister, gives an account of his WW1 service, his wounds and his capture by the enemy, and was probably published a few months later, although I haven’t found a copy in newspapers online.

He is described as the son of Mr and Mrs W Fage of Longfield Road, Sandy. He was sent back to ‘Blighty’ in March 1917, suffering from Trench Fever and diptheria, but was sent to France again on 30 June 1917. A shrapnel wound to his back was treated in French field hospitals, but in fighting in Cambrai “he fell into the hands of the enemy and spent Christmas at Minden Camp”.

PoWs captured in France were transported by rail to camps in Germany. Minden was in Westphalia, constructed in 1914. The book The Prisoner of war in Germany, McCarthy, Daniel Joseph has descriptions of each of the PoW camps. Minden was particularly harsh and bleak, and treatment of the men brutal, so Albert Victor Fage’s “satisfaction” with his transfer to Munster No.2 Camp (Rennbahn) at the time of the newspaper article is probably an understatement.

He seems to have been in Minden until about March 1918, a camp that housed around 18,000 men, and then spent a short time at Friedrichsfeld, Kessel (a camp singled out for reports of fair treatment in the above mentioned book) before then moving to Rennbahn. Friedrichsfeld held 35,000 men, but the camp commandant was apparently mindful of welfare and of allowing officers to continue to command and keep the peace of men under their jurisdiction (Source: book mentioned above).

Extract from PoW records (FindMyPast)

Munster 2 camp was built on a pre-war racecourse (Rennbahn in German) and was generally known by that name. While life in the camp would have been full of hardships, not least the lack of clothing and food, it seems that prisoners were allowed some leeway to entertain themselves. French/Canadian prisoners produced a weekly newspaper called Echo du Camp, while British prisoners put together and circulated The Rennbahn Review. Each carried reminiscences, satirical cartoons and adverts for concerts and other entertainment arranged by the PoWs. Here, too, parcels from home were allowed. Newspaper articles show that much fundraising went on locally to be able to put together and post parcels to ‘our boys’, including Private Albert Victor Fage.

This is a photocopy (right) of a photo of him which was in our grandmother’s collection and was likely taken at the time he enlisted in 1916.

He finally returned home to Sandy after the Armistice and on 26 March 1921, married Mary Louisa Cade at The Register Office in Biggleswade. The couple were first cousins. His mother Alice Cade was sister to Mary’s father, Henry (Harry) Cade. By then, Albert was working at a Cement Works, a job his uncle may have helped him find as he worked in the same place, in Thurrock, Essex.

Their only known child was born on 25 June 1925 in Thurrock (Orsett district). He was another ‘Albie’ – Albert H J Fage. At the outbreak of WW2, Albert Victor Fage is living at 18 Kent Road, Thurrock, working as a Wharf Foreman (Cement). With him is his wife, but their son, by then 14 years old, is recorded with his Aunt Susan Plumley and her husband at 50 Miller Road, Bedford. Young Albert is working as a Van Boy. It was perhaps thought safer for him to be in Bedford rather than Essex, which – including the cement works – became a target for German bombers in WW2.

This photo is from my Mum’s collection, taken in 1948 at the family home in Essex.

L-R: Susie Plumbly (nee Fage); Louie Fage, wife of (centre) Albert Fage; Violet Emma ‘Dot’ Francis, nee Fage; Elizabeth Sarah Brown, nee Fage. Essex. 1948

Albert Victor Fage continued to live in Thurrock until his death, on 16 March 1961, at Hammersmith Hospital in London. He was 63 years old. His probate record gives his usual place of residence as 46 Hill Crest Avenue, West Thurrock. Google street view shows this as a corner semi-detached property of the kind built after WW2, in a pleasant cul-de-sac. Louie Fage died over 20 years later, on 20 February 1983. Their son Albert H J Fage died in Thurrock in 2006

Jesse William Fage (1899-1986): Private 51208 Suffolk Regt. +

Born on 12 January 1899, Jesse William Fage was the third son born to William John and Alice Fage. By the time he was 12, the family had grown to comprise eight children. School record books at FindMyPast show that he left school on 15 January 1912, aged 13, to engage in ‘agricultural work’, probably joining his father or uncles in the surrounding market gardens or farms. He was still only 15 when WW1 broke out, and he would have seen both his older brothers go off to fight in France until he himself enlisted on 20 February 1917.

His service records are amongst the ‘burnt records’ held at TNA (via FindMyPast) and only a Casualty/Occupation card and associated pages survive. These suggest that, after enlistment aged 18 and one month, he was first posted to various Training Reserve Battalions between 21 February-22 June 1917. He was then transferred to the 3^rd Battalion Suffolk Regiment, at Folkestone, and embarked with them on 15 February 1918, presumably to France. He had a variety of regimental numbers, including 51208 (Suffolk Regt.), 50686 (Lancs Regt.) and 640456 (Labour Corps).

Jesse William Fage Casualty Form (TNA)

The address of his next of kin is shown as Longfield Road, Sandy, and there is a note under ‘qualification’ that says R. Bomber. A few months later, however, on 11 May 1918, he contracted Tonsillitis. It seems this worsened and he was transferred to England from a French hospital with Peritonsillar Abcess. He doesn’t appear to have returned to the front, but was posted to the Western Command Labour Centre at Oswestry, and demobilised in 1919.

On 1 August 1925, he married Emily Brown, sister of my Grandad Brown and a good friend of his wife-to-be Elizabeth Sarah Fage, Jesse’s sister. This photo of Jesse William Fage was passed on by his grandson Mervyn John Wharton, and is dated 30 June 1984. His granddaughter Carol Ann Wharton married in June 1984, so this may have been taken at her wedding. He would have been 85 years old.

Jesse William Fage, 30 June 1984

Jesse William Fage died on 25 July 1986 at Bedford General Hospital, of Bronchopneumonia. His death certificate describes him as a Market Gardener’s Labourer (Retired) of 11 South Road, Sandy.