Frederick William Honeysett (43968) was a driver in K Battery of the Royal Horse Artillery and he was killed in the retreat from Antwerp, in Belgium on 20 October 1914. He was on active service in Flanders for only 12 days and was 26. He appears to be the earliest loss in the extended Honeysett/Hunnisett family.
Frederick joined the regular army in 1907, when he was 19. He had been a groom and his father was a coachman, so the Royal Horse Artillery looked a good fit. The RHA manned the lighter mobile horse drawn guns (the Royal Field Artillery had bigger guns!) and usually each battery supported a cavalry brigade.
Frederick and his original X battery were stationed in Mdhow, India in the 1911 census. His new battery, K, was in the Cavalry Barracks at Christchurch, Dorset on the 01 August 1914 and they were quickly mobilised.
K Battery landed at Ostend, Belgium on 08 October 1914 as part of the XVth Brigade RHA supporting the 7th Cavalry Brigade. They then moved to Bruge.
K Battery arrived in a retreat or was it a rout?
The Belgians had been overrun by the German Army and supported by French forces and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) were retreating towards the Yser River, close to the border with France. Each side was trying to keep the advantage of sea access along the Yser River and the Leperlee (canal to Ypres from the sea).
On the “Lives of the first world war” website, Frederick’s entry has this information about his death written by the History Officer, K Battery, RA.
“Dvr Honeysett was killed in the wagon line as the battery prepared to withdraw from Passchendale. There was no time for burial so his body was left at a farm in Moorslede”.
Both places mentioned are nor far from Ypres, slightly to the North-East.
Frederick has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate at Ypres. I have not found him on a Sussex war memorial so far. He was awarded the 14 Star medal and clasp. The 1914 star was awarded to those who had served in France or Belgium between 05 Aug to midnight 22nd November 1914. The clasp was an additional award for those who had operated within range of enemy mobile artillery in the same time period. However the clasp had to be claimed personally, so Frederick would never have received it. In addition he was awarded the British War and Victory Medals.
He had given his father, Henry, as his next of kin and he received £22 3s 2d on behalf of his son.
Frederick’s family
Frederick William was born in 1888 to Henry & Kate Honeysett. He had an older brother, Harry, several younger sisters and two younger brothers, Charles and Jack. They lived in Mountfield, Sussex (near Battle) where Henry was a coachman. Frederick, Charles and Jack all joined the armed services either before the war or very early on.
Harry (b. 1886)
Harry is a little difficult to trace, so if you know any more, please contribute. By the 1901 census he’d left home and was a servant at Manor House Stables in Bexhill. A Harry Honeysett is then found in the Waterford area of Ireland where he was prosecuted for driving a motor car without due care and attention in 1905 and 1907 and paid the fines for doing so. This man is also on the 1911 Irish census in Waterford with the profession of a mechanic and born in England. Although he sounds just the kind of man the Army would want, I haven’t pinned him down yet!
Charles Traughton (b. 1897)
Charles T signed up in Maidstone on 15 November 1915 on his enlistment paper he added an extra “n” to his surname, Honneysett and kept it like that for the rest of his life. He had been living and working at Eridge Castle, as a labourer and joined the Royal West Kent Regiment as a Private. He started in the 9th Battalion (reserve) and then was transferred to the 11th (service). He was trained in England until the start of May 1916 and then was transferred to France as part of the BEF.
His battalion engaged in these battles in 1916:
Flers-Courcelette 15-22 Sep – this was 3rd main phase of the battle of the Somme, it was also the first time tanks were used. The purpose was to punch a hole in the German defences which it did not achieve decisively and poor weather then stopped further assaults.
Translory Ridges 1-18 Oct – this was the last big attack in the Battle of the Somme in 1916 by the BEF and French forces with 159.000 allied casualties. The landscape by now had been destroyed and the weather very poor. The ground was described as a morass of liquid yellow-grey mud – men on foot were coated to the knees and movement off the roads became impossible. Guns jammed and provisions got soaked.
Charles survived for 161 days on the Somme before being transferred back to England. On 24 April 1917, he was discharged as medically unfit for service due to his wounds.
He received the British War and the Victory medals and also the Silver War Badge . This last was awarded to those who were honourably discharged due to sickness or injury.
After the war Charles married Florence A Lennox and they had a son, Harry Charles in March 1922. Unfortunately Florence died in 1928. Charles remarried in 1929 in Hampshire to Christine Sarah Violet Case. They had a daughter, Joy in 1931, another child’s details are closed on the 1939 “census”.
In 1939, the family were living in Gosport, Hampshire and Charles was working as a storehouse assistant in Naval Ammunitions, this was considered heavy work. Harry was an apprentice painter and decorator.
Is Charles your ancestor? Can you add more details to the story?
Jack Leonard (b.1894)
Jack signed up for the Royal Navy on 09 June 1913 for a 12 year engagement. His records call him John, which is of course the formal name that has a diminutive of Jack, but Jack Leonard Honeysett was baptised as just that. He had been working as a gardener and motor driver and been living at home.
He trained as a stoker and survived the war. He extended his service until March 1929, when he retired as a Leading Stoker. The Royal Navy advertised for recruits in the local newspapers pre-war and often led the adverts with a request for stokers.
He served on many ship during the war, some of them were:
Dominion – a battleship that operated as part of the Northern Patrol in 1914. This force formed a blockade to stop German trade
Aragon – a converted Royal Mail ship, she served as a troop ship taking part in the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915. Sunk in 1917, luckily Jack was elsewhere by then
Hecla – was a converted civilian should used as an offshore depot, when Jack was on the ship it was supporting the Second Destroyer Flotilla based in Belfast.
Hawkins- large battleship commissioned in 1917, based in the China Station. Her boilers were changed from coal fired to oil in December 1929, the prospect may have prompted Jack to retire!
He received the 14-15 star, awarded to those who served between 05 August 2014 and 31st December 2015. He also received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
After the war, Jack married Violet E E Walter in 1921.
He is found in the 1939 “census” living in Battle on Banks Farm as a RN pensioner. Jack was divorced.
Jack and Violet had one son, Derrick Jack born in 1922. In 1939 he was living in Battle with his mother, working as a clerk for a gypsom company and also working as a ARP dispatch rider.
Is Jack your ancestor, can you add more to the story?
Deep Ancestry
I have traced this branch of the family back to 1795 to a Warbleton,Sussex based family
This blog is part of an ongoing series providing the stories around the lives and families of those Honeysetts and Hunnisetts who died in the the Great War.
Find out more about your Hunnisetts and Honeysetts at http://hunnisett.one-name.net
It is also part of the 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge – First
Sources – in addition to Ancestry, FindMyPast and the GRO, these sources have been particularly useful
http://www.greatwar.co.uk/medals/ww1-campaign-medals.htm
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie
