Frederick John Louis David - South Wales Borderers (attached Welsh Regiment, 15th (Service) Battalion (Carmarthenshire))

Second Lieutenant Frederick John Louis David - South Wales Borderers (attached Welsh Regiment, 15^th (Service) Battalion (Carmarthenshire))

Birth and Family Background

Frederick John Louis David was born in 1895 in Swansea. He was the son of Edmond Joseph David and Louise Elisabeth Josephine David.

Little documentary evidence survives regarding his early life in Wales, as he later resided in Saskatchewan, Canada, which accounts for the absence of detailed census records in Britain.

Military Service and Death

Frederick was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the South Wales Borderers, and was later attached to the Welsh Regiment, 15^th (Service) Battalion (Carmarthenshire).

On 18^th September 1918, during the later stages of the Hundred Days Offensive, the 15^th (Carmarthenshire) Battalion was engaged in heavy fighting in the Nord region as British forces pressed toward the Hindenburg Line. Although the German Army was retreating, resistance remained determined, with entrenched positions, defended villages, and concealed machine-gun posts causing significant casualties. The battalion advanced methodically across contested ground, consolidating gains while under artillery and small-arms fire. The area around Gouzeaucourt, previously fought over in 1917, again became a scene of intense action. It was during these sustained offensive operations that Frederick was killed in action.

Burial

Second Lieutenant Frederick John Louis David is buried at Gouzeaucourt New British Cemetery, Nord, France, a cemetery associated with the heavy fighting of the final Allied advance in 1918