(Second cousin once removed of the author)
Frederick Charles Troke, son of Henry Ernest Pearce Troke (1873-1942) and Ethelanda Sophia Golden (1874-1963), was born in Milford, Lymington, Hampshire in 1898.
Around 1902/3 Henry Troke returned to the Kinson area with his family. They lived first in Wallisdown and then High Howe. Henry was a blacksmith working for the water and gas company. The 1911 census records the Trokes living at High Howe between the Saunders Homes of Rest and the families living in the Gypsy encampment on Bankes Heath to the south of Elliot’s West Howe Pottery. Fred worked at the pottery prior to conscription.
Elliott’s Potteries started at Bear Cross. Mr. E. A. Elliott, who farmed extensively in the area, discovered good brick clay when a well was sunk on his farm at Cudnell. A brickworks was started here where the farmland met the crossroads, and hand-made bricks were made from around 1880 to 1900. When the clay at Bear Cross ran out the brickworks was moved to the rise of land at West Howe, in Poole Lane. The clay here was a much better quality Ball Clay. Later, in 1912, drain pipes, terra cotta ware and roofing tiles were manufactured in addition to bricks. In 1922, Mr. N. T. Elliott entered the firm and by 1927 the manufacture of bricks for domestic fireplaces was started and these, together with stoneware drain pipes, were made until the potteries closed in 1966. Bournemouth Corporation and Max Factor (local light industry) bought the land.
Frederick’s Army Service Records have not survived so the date of his enlistment and when he was sent to the Western Front is not known. Conscription for men over the age of 18 was introduced on 25th May 1916. Fred probably joined up shortly after his 18th birthday. Soldiers could only be sent overseas once they reached the age of 19 (the age limit was reduced to 18 years and 6 months providing the man had received 6 months training on 10th April 1918) which would put the earliest date for Fred going to Flanders/France as sometime during Q3 1917, approximately 1 year before his death. Frederick was Killed in Action on 29 September 1918 in northern France. He served in the 5th Dorsetshire Regiment (Service No. 28030) and has no known grave.
The website of The Keep military museum (museum of the Dorsetshire Regiment in Dorchester) states that:
After ten months holding the Loos salient further south, in late September and October 1918 the 5th Dorsets played a part in the final rapid advances that led to the Armistice. They achieved particular success in a fiercely opposed attack north-west of Cambrai, which cost relatively few lives although enemy shelling killed their Colonel, Padre and Medical Officer.
A regimental history at the museum shows:
The 5th Dorsets spent a quiet day [on September 28th] but in the evening they relieved the Northumberland Fusiliers in the front line, which they had advanced during the day nearer to the Sensée (river). The 5th promptly sent out patrols forward, which found Aubencheul strongly held, considerable resistance being encountered and a dozen casualties incurred; further to the west, however, more posts were established on the banks of the Sensée.
The report continues:
Next morning (September 29th) more patrols were pushed out along the Sensée, drawing much machine-gun fire from the opposite bank and finding all bridges destroyed. Against Aubencheul itself a more serious effort was made by ‘B’ Company, supported by ‘D’. Unfortunately, at 12.35pm, ten minutes before the attack was to start, a message was received postponing the operation. At 12.45pm however, the barrage came down [this means there was shelling to provide cover for the attack], and shortly afterwards a message came through cancelling the postponement and ordering the attack to go on as arranged. At 1.12pm, therefore, after the barrage had already lifted, ‘B’ went forward but was held up by heavy machine-gun fire from just west of Aubencheul. Advanced posts were nevertheless established south-west of the village and less than 20 casualties were incurred, including Lieut. McCall wounded.
Frederick Charles Troke’s name appears on the Memorial Plaque in St Andrew’s Church, Kinson and on the Roll of Honour of Elliott’s West Howe Pottery. Frederick is ‘Remembered in Honour’ on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial. The Memorial bears the names of over 9,000 men who fell in the period from 8 August 1918 to the date of the Armistice in the Advance to Victory in Picardy and Artois, between the Somme and Loos, and who have no known grave. The memorial was unveiled 4 August 1930.
After the war Henry and Ethelanda moved to The Mount (later Mount Road) in East Howe and called their home ‘Epegnoye’, a phonetic spelling of the English pronunciation of the name Épinoy. Épinoy is a small village on the N43 road between Cambrai and Douai, some 8 kilometres north-west of Cambrai. Fred was killed near the village which was captured by the 11th (Northern) Division on 27 September 1918.