Selected Biography

Honeyball, Frederick – Born: Wickenbrook, Suffolk in 1877.  Parents: James Honeyball (Agricultural Labourer) and Emma [née Basham] of Park Terrace, Long Melford.  Family Connections: Brother-in-law of Alfred Woodhouse of Long Melford [b1877].  Home: Giffords, Wickenbrook, Suffolk (1881), Cranfields, Long Melford (1891), 52 Blissett Street, Greenwich, London (1901), 9 Heath Terrace, Maidstone Hill, Greenwich (1911).  Occupation: Agricultural Labourer (1901), Engineer’s Labourer (1901), Polisher in a Fire Engine Works (1911).  Service Record: Frederick served as Pte.21608 with 12^th [Service] Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, being posted to France from 7.6.1916 as part of 121^st Brigade, 40^th Division.[1]  Died: Private Honeyball died of his wounds on 23.7.1916 during an enemy bombardment of rifle grenades and aerial torpedoes on British trenches at Loos.  He is buried in Philosophe British Cemetery [grave ref: I.J.38], Mazingarbe, Pas-de-Calais, France and commemorated on the Long Melford War Memorial.[2]

Related Biography

Woodhouse, Alfred – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 31.3.1877.[3]  Parents: John Woodhouse (Coconut Mat Maker) and Maria [née Larkin] (Horsehair Weaver).  Family Connections: Brother to Robert Edmund Woodhouse [b1872] and to Albert Edward Woodhouse [b1874] and Edmund John Woodhouse [b1891]; also, brother-in-law of Frederick Honeyball [b1877].  Home: Hall Street, Long Melford (1881), St Catherines Road, Long Melford (1891), servant to Isaac Tapper at Great Road, Little Stoneham, Suffolk (1901), St Catherines Road, Long Melford (1911), Park Terrace, St Marys, Long Melford (1939), 93 Cordell Place, Long Melford [1964].  Occupation: Butcher’s Boy (1891), Gardener (1901), Brewer’s Labourer for Ward and Son of Foxearth, Essex (1911), Gardener (1939).  Married: Sarah Ann Honeyball in 1911.  Service Record: Alfred was conscripted on 9.1.1917 as Pte.5/6234 with 5^th [Reserve] Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, transferring on 28.3.1917 to 8^th [Service] Battalion, East Surreys and posted to France.  On 24.4.1917 he was transferred in the field to 7^th [Service] Battalion, East Surreys, as part of 37^th Brigade, 12^th [Eastern] Division.  He saw action at the end of the month at the Battle of Arleux, one of the phases of the wider Arras Offensive of 1917.  On 20.11.1917 the East Surreys were again in action during the opening attack of the Battle of Cambrai, the first use of tanks en masse of the War.  It was while his battalion was advancing on the German front-line at Gonnelieu that Alf received a gunshot wound to his right thigh.  After initial treatment at N^o. 10 General Hospital at Rouen he was invalided to England on 16.12.1917, transferring as Pte.202784 to 5^th East Surreys in 1918 then to the Army Reserve in 1919.[4]  Died: Long Melford, Suffolk on 26.1.1964.[5]

Notes – [1] Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329] and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372].  [2] For events surrounding the action where Private Honeyball was fatally wounded see 12^th Suffolk’s War Diary [WO 95/2616/1] and Murphy, Lieutenant-Colonel C. C. R. The History of the Suffolk Regiment 1914-1927 [London: Hutchinson and Co, 1928], pp.199-200.  See also his Commonwealth War Graves Commission record, British Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929 files [ref: 327057 and 796806].  [3] Date of birth from the Baptism Register 10.3.1879, Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford.  [4] For details of 7^th East Surrey’s movements in 1917 see War Diary [WO 95/1862/3-4].  See also his Soldiers’ Documents, First World War ‘Burnt Documents’ [WO 363], Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329], and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372].  [5] Date of death from the National Probate Calendar.