Fred Mackay

Memorial: Olveston

Regiment: Royal Field Artillery

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal

Rank and number: Gunner

Parents: Sidney and Jane Mackay

Home address: Willow Farm, Awkley Lane, Tockington, Bristol

Pre-war occupation: Running of the farm

Date of birth: 1894

Place of birth: Harefield, Middlesex

Date of death: 17/07/1917

Buried/Commemorated at: Hospital Farm Cemetery west of Ypres

Age: 23

Further information:

Fred Mackay was one of those people born with a happy disposition who laughed and joked a lot. His parents, Sidney and Jane, were from Weston near Bristol, where Fred’s three sisters and brother Victor were born. The family farmed at Lansdown near Bath then moved to Harefield, Middlesex, where Fred was born and christened in the village church. By 1901, they were living at Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire and shortly after that moved to Willow Farm on Awkley Lane, Tockington. It is most likely that Fred went to Olveston school and then joined Victor in the running of the farm as his father had retired. Fred joined up on the 13th of September 1915 in Bristol and was assigned to the Royal Field Artillery where, eventually, he was posted to 'C‘ Battery of the 155th Brigade

By Christmas 1915, Fred was in France as was his brother Victor. Fred sent him a Christmas card showing, on the front, an artillery piece in action entitled ‘The Din of Battle’ and the Royal Field Artillery insignia embossed in gold inside with the printed words:

Hats off to the lads in Khaki
Three cheers for the boys in blue
We’ll show the way to win the day
If Britain’s sons are true

The Season’s Greetings and all good wishes from Gunner F. Mackay, 1st Battery, Gloster Royal Field Artillery

In August 1916 Fred was wounded and hospitalised, returning to duty on February 20th 1917. In June of that year Fred was writing to wish his mother many happy returns of the day, possibly a touch late as he put it, ‘as she would have read in the papers, the RFA had been busy lately’ - at the Battle of Messines. He also complained of the heat, preferring cold, dry weather, but nevertheless a great improvement over the rain and mud that they had previously endured. Within a month of that letter being written and just after his 23rd birthday, Fred’s battery at Steentje was shelled and he was fatally wounded. Despite the efforts of the Royal Army Medical Corps at Hospital Farm field dressing station, he died of wounds on the 17 of July 1917. He now lies buried at Hospital Farm Cemetery west of Ypres

Older brother Victor returned from the war, having suffered from blackwater fever, eventually to live in Haw Lane and work at the Bristol Aeroplane Company as a carpenter and joiner