Pte Fredrick ‘Freddy’ House came from a old and long established farming family in the village of Stoke St Gregory, West Somerset. The family have been farmers there since before local records begin in the 1500s.

Pte House had enlisted in the West Somerset Yeomanry prior to the Great War and was mobilised upon its outbreak. Initially serving mounted, he and the Regiment were dismounted and shipped off to serve in the Dardanelles Campaign against the Ottoman Empire. After the failure of this campaign the Regiment was evacuated to Egypt.

The West Somerset Yeomanry itself continued to fight in the Middle East for the remainder of the war but at some point Pte House was transferred to the 7th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry and moved to the Western Front. Pte House is listed as serving with this Battalion from 30.09.17. 

Pte Freddy House was killed during a German counter attack at the Battle of Cambrai on 30.11.17, during which the majority of his Battalion were also killed, wounded or taken prisoner. He has no known grave, but is memorialised in Stoke St Gregory Church and also at the Cambrai Memorial in France.

On behalf of his family, we will remember.

Jordan Marchant