Poppy

Military Record for Frederick William DICKERSON

From military sources
Name:Frederick William DICKERSON (link to CWGC)
Rank:Private
Birth place:- [Morningthorpe, Norfolk]
Service number:20441
Enlistment location:Norwich, Norfolk
Regiment:Essex Regiment (formerly 17441, Norfolk Regiment)
Battalion:1st Bn.
Date of death:6 Aug 1915
Death location:Gallipolli, Balkan Theatre
Type of casualty:Killed in action
Grave reference:Sp. Mem. B. 36.
Memorial:Twelve Tree Copse Cemetery (link to CWGC)
Supplementary Notes:“DICKERSON, Pte. F. W., 20441. 1st Bn. Essex Regt. 6th Aug., 1915. Sp. Mem. B. 36.” (from Grave Registration Report). Memorial instription: “THEIR GLORY SHALL NOT BE BLOTTED OUT” (from Headstone Report). One record of military death shows Tharston as Frederick’s residence.
Other personal details
Birth:27 Dec 1892 from baptism record
Civil Registration - 1893 Q1 Depwade Norfolk Vol 4B Page 243
Census records gives Morningthorpe, Norfolk as place of birth
Baptism:24 Jun 1893 in Morningthorpe with Fritton, Norfolk
Education:15 Sep 1896, admitted to Fritton and Morningthorpe National School
Census returns:1901, Gresham Green, Pulham St. Mary Magdalen, 8 (RG13 1860 123 8)
1911, Stratton St. Michael, Norfolk, boarding with the Brewington family, 18, labourer (RG14PN11467 RG78PN625 RD230 SD3 ED13 SN146)
Family
Father:Frederick DICKERSON (23 Aug 1867 - 1949)
Mother:Louisa FLATT (1868 - 1933?) (m. 7 Apr 1891)
Known siblings:Frances (1897 - ????)
Documents (source and description)
CWGC:Grave Registration Reports ( 1 : 2 )
CWGC:Headstone Reports ( 1 : 2 : 3 )
Miscellaneous
CWGC:Death Certificate CWGC
Photos

Essem Regiment, cap badge
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Twelve Tree Copse Cemetery
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Notes from talk by Nicholas Chapman (18 Oct 2023)

DICKERSON, Frederick (Twelve Tree Copse Cemetery)

The eight month campaign in Gallipoli was fought by Commonwealth and French forces in an attempt to force Turkey out of the war, to relieve the deadlock of the Western Front in France and Belgium, and to open a supply route to Russia through the Dardanelles and the Black Sea.

Ist bn Essex Regt were in Mauritius when war broke out. The returned to England in Dec. In mid Jan they moved to Banbury to join 88 Bde of the 29th Division. At some point between late Jan and early Mar Pte FW Dickerson was transferred to from Norfolk Regt to join 1st Bn Essex Regt. They were training for France when orders arrived to embark at Avonmouth on 21st March to sail via Malta to Alexandria then to Mudros in Apr.

The Allies landed on the peninsula on 25-26 April 1915; the 29th Division at Cape Helles in the south and the Australian and New Zealand Corps north of Gaba Tepe on the west coast, an area soon known as Anzac.

On 28 April, following the landings at Helles, the first attack was mounted towards Achi Baba, the ridge which dominates the southern part of the peninsula. Fatigue, however, brought the assault to a halt some kilometres short of the objective, near the village of Krithia. Turkish counter attacks followed but were repulsed and during the period 6-8 May, the 29th and French Divisions, reinforced by the 2nd Australian and New Zealand Infantry Brigades, carried out a renewed attack on Krithia, making some gains but suffering heavy casualties.

Between 1 May and the beginning of June, the 29th Indian Infantry Brigade and 42nd (East Lancashire) Division landed on the peninsula. With these reinforcements, the Allied force at Helles pushed forward once more on 4 June, but again to little effect. A further attack between 28 June and 5 July at Gully Ravine inflicted heavy casualties on the Turkish forces, but despite local gains - at one point the line was pushed forward more than a kilometre - there was no breakthrough. By 13 July the advance at Helles was effectively over but fighting and continued through until January 1916 when all forces were withdrawn. During this period of stalemate there was one big last operation. There was fresh divisions to land at Suvla Bay with diversionary attacks by British and French Forces at Cape Helles. This was on the 6th August involved 1st Bn Essex Regt as part of 88 Bde at Cape Helles. They were heavily repulsed and forced to retire. Pt Dickerson was killed in that attack but his body was either not recovered or recovered and not identified.

In 1918 a Graves Registration Unit was sent to the peninsula to begin the task of locating all remains and, where possible, identifying them. It was incredibly difficult work. The peninsula was littered with impromptu burial sites, and the amount of live ammunition and artillery shells in the area made it dangerous. The job of the Graves Registration Unit was to track down all remains on the peninsula, attempt to identify them, formally rebury them and mark exactly where each set of remains had been buried. The men who worked for the Graves Registration Unit were volunteers drawn from the ranks of former soldiers, and they were paid a daily rate of 2s 6d per day. It was clearly harrowing work, and the men working for the unit were often absent from work, and known for their bouts of drunkenness. By the end of 1919 the smaller cemeteries from 1915 had been consolidated into larger ones, and bodies from across the peninsula had been brought to these cemeteries for reburial.

The Graves Registration Unit was not in a position to do its work until after the Armistice (Peace treaty with Turkey did not take place until Aug 20th at Treaty of Sevres). This they completed by end of 1919 and handed over responsibility to the IWGC.

They arrived in Gallipoli in late 1919 and were charged with the construction and maintenance of the formal cemeteries in the area. The plans for the various cemeteries on the peninsula were all drawn up by the Scottish architect Sir John James Burnet. All the commission cemeteries on the western front were designed with common architectural styles and features. That was not possible in Gallipoli due to the nature of the terrain, and the heavy damage done to the area by shelling and trench making. Also, the peninsula is open to the coast and a heavy prevailing wind that made the western front style of design unsuitable. To address these problems Burnet designed a series of cemeteries that would fit the landscape, while honouring the dead and housing those known and unknown remains. To achieve this there were three features specific to the Gallipoli cemeteries: 1) each cemetery would have a walled, rather than free standing cross, 2) each grave would be marked by low pedestal graves rather than headstones and 3) a rubble wall would encircle each cemetery to take away fast running storm water in the winter. The work was all completed (with the exception of the New Zealand memorial) by 1925. The work was supervised by commission staff who lived in Gallipoli for the duration of the build, and carried out by Turkish and Greek labourers. The necessary marble was mined locally. It also has to be remembered that the commission work at Gallipoli took place against the backdrop of the Turkish War of Independence and the creation of the Turkish state under Mustafa Ataturk.

Sir John Burnet had been appointed to design the cemeteries at Gallopili. He was a well known architect from Scotland. He designed Adelaide House in London and Selfridges in London as examples.

TWELVE TREE COPSE CEMETERY was a concentration of casualties brought in from isolated sites and small burial grounds on the battlefields of April-August and December 1915. The most significant of these burial grounds were Geoghegan's Bluff Cemetery, which contained 925 graves associated with fighting at Gully Ravine in June-July 1915; Fir Tree Wood Cemetery, where the 29th Division and New Zealand Infantry Brigade fought in May 1915, Clunes Vennel Cemetery, on the south side of Krithia, which contained 522 graves and the Cape Helles attack in Aug by 88 Bde.

There are now 3,360 First World War servicemen buried or commemorated in the cemetery. 2,226 of the burials are unidentified but special memorials commemorate many casualties known or believed to be buried among them, including the 142 officers and men of the 1st Essex who died on 6 August 1915.

PEDESTAL MARKERS - Instead of the usual Commission headstone, some cemeteries will instead use pedestal markers, for example in Gallipoli or across many countries in the Far East. These are small rectangular concrete bases with a stone or bronze plaque attached. These are often found in areas where the soil and weather conditions wouldn’t support a standard headstone, or where the Commission doesn’t have permission to erect a standard headstone.

The above text has been included by kind permission of Nicholas Chapman - © 2023.

Lewis COOPER : DYE Brian


Notes:

Page last updated: 4 Jan 2024
© Nigel Peacock 2024