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Captain
FREDERICK WILLIAM ANDERSON
Royal Engineers 

by 

Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Edward De Santis, MSCE, P.E., MinstRE
(April 2024)

Figure 1. Captain Frederick William Anderson, R.E.
(Image courtesy of the Imperial War Museum) 

1.  INTRODUCTION 

            When day broke on 28 March 1918, the 56^th London Territorial Division was in position on the southern portion of the Vimy Ridge.  At nightfall, the division still held its ground, having beaten back three separate assaults delivered in great strength by picked German troops especially trained in the attack and inspired with confidence resulting from the successes of the previous week.  Truly a great achievement, and important as great, for the Vimy Ridge covered the city of Arras and the coalfields of Béthune. 

From the Foreword to

The 56^th Division (1^st London Territorial Division) by

Major C.H. Dudley Ward, D.S.O., M.C.  

            Major Dudley Ward’s Foreword describes the tactical situation of the 56^th Division on the day before Captain Anderson was killed in action. 

2.  FAMILY INFORMATION AND EARLY LIFE

Family Information 

            Frederick William Anderson was born in Stow, Midlothian, Scotland on 15 June 1887.  His parents were William Malcolm Anderson (1857-1929), a farmer, and Margaret Kilgour Anderson, née Dudgeon (1861-1933).[1] Early Life

            Frederick’s family was a large one.  The 1891 Census of Scotland shows that he had two brothers, Malcom B. (age 9 years) and Alexander D. (age 8 years).  Malcolm and Alexander are listed as Scholars in the census.  His sisters were Annie May (age 6 years), Marion C. (age 5 years) and Christina L. (age 5 months).  Both Annie and Marion were Scholars at the time.  The Andersons also had two domestic servants in 1891: Helen McBain Budge (age 21), a Governess from Edinburgh and Agnes Lockerbie (age 28), a Nurse from Dumfries.  The family home address at the time was 1 Pirntaton Farm.  Pirntaton farm was located to the west of the town of Stow in the beautiful Moorfoot Hills, halfway between Edinburgh and the Borders town of Galashiels.[2]  

            By 1901 all the children were still living with their parents.  Their father is shown as a retired farmer and the home address was 1 Wester Coates Gardens, Edinburgh.  The family’s domestic servants were now Elizabeth Binnie (24), a Table Maid, and Isabella Neish (25), a Cook. 

            William Malcolm Anderson apparently did very well as a farmer, as he was able to retain two domestic servants in his household.  After retiring he was able to move to an exclusive area in Edinburgh where large houses were available.  The image below is of the present structure at 1 Wester Coates Gardens.  It is not known if this was the house in which the Anderson family lived. 

Figure 2.  1 Wester Coats Gardens, Edinburgh, c. 2024.
(Image courtesy of Google Earth) 

            No information was uncovered during this research to determine Frederick William Anderson’s educational background.  Presumably, he had some technical education and perhaps even a degree in Engineering.

3.  COMMISSIONING AND TRAINING

Commissioning 

            Frederick was commissioned a 2^nd Lieutenant in the City of Edinburgh (Fortress) Royal Engineers (Territorial Force) on 1 June 1915.[3]  Upon his commissioning he was posted to No. 1 Works Company.

            When Anderson was commissioned, the City of Edinburgh (Fortress) Royal Engineers consisted of a Headquarters at 28 York Place (now a hotel) in Edinburgh, No. 1 Works Company and No. 2 Electric Lights Company.

Training 

            Since Anderson was commissioned almost a year after the start of the Great War of 1914-1918, it must be assumed that his training was abbreviated.  He may have received training during weekend and summer drills with No. 1 Works Company or he may have attended a short course at the School of Military Engineering (S.M.E.) at Chatham.  His service papers (not available at the time of this research) would have to be consulted for these details.

4.  POSTINGS AND CAMPAIGN SERVICE

Egypt (1915-1916)

            On 16 November 1915 Anderson’s company was attached to the 69^th (2^nd East Anglian) Division at Thetford in Norfolk.  Having been alerted for war service, the company was detached from the 69^th Division and embarked at Devonport on 19 December 1915 bound for Egypt.[4]  It disembarked at Port Said during 3 to 5 January 1916 and was posted to Army Troops of the Egypt Expeditionary Force to work on the defence of the Suez Canal.  On 17 April 1916, the company embarked at Alexandria and sailed to France, then needed for the growing conflict on the Western Front.

France (1916-1918)

            Anderson and his company disembarked at Marseilles on 24 April 1916 and on 27 April the company was posted as the 1/1^st Edinburgh Field Company, R.E. to the 56^th (London) Division.  It was then ordered to provide direct support to the 169^th (3^rd London) Brigade of the division.

            The Commander Royal Engineers (C.R.E.) of the 56^th Division was Lieutenant Colonel H.W. Gordon, D.S.O., R.E.[5]  The other engineer units in the division were the following:

·         2/1^st London Field Company

·         2/2^nd London Field Company

·         56^th Divisional Signal Company

            The 1/5^th Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment joined the division in February 1916 as the division’s Pioneer Battalion under the command of Lieutenant Colonel J.E.C. Groves, C.M.G., T.D.[6]  Pioneer Battalions were essentially infantry with light military combat engineer skills and equipment,  located at the very forward edge of the battle area.  They were used to develop and enhance protection and mobility for supported troops and to deny it to the enemy.  They constructed defensive positions, command posts and dugouts, prepared barbed wire defences and on occasion breached those of the enemy using devices like the Bangalore Torpedo.  Their skills and capability were broad from building, construction and maintenance to road and track preparation and maintenance. They could also, and did quite often, fight as infantry.

            2^nd Lieutenant Anderson’s first engagement of the war occurred on the night of 26/27 May 1916 when, after two days of rehearsals, his company assisted the 167^th (1^st London) Brigade in digging a new jumping-off line closer to the enemy positions.[7]  During this action the company lost 1778 Sapper James Strachan, killed in action.[8]

            On 1 June 1916 Frederick William Anderson was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant.[9]  At this time he was serving as a section commander within the company.  His promotion came exactly one month before he and his company would take part in the large British offensive operations on the Somme.  During June, the Edinburgh Field Company lost several casualties (none killed) from German counter-bombardment during the preparations for the battle. When the attack went in on 1 July, the company's roles were to mark communication trenches to be dug across No-man's land by 1/3rd Battalion, London Regiment, to establish dumps of engineering stores in the captured German lines, to remove barricades and build trench bridges in the British trenches. These tasks proved impossible under intense German shellfire, and the attempts to carry them out were costly. The divisional attack was a failure.[10]

            Next came the battle of Guillemont for the company from 3 to 6 September and then the battle of Ginchy on 9 September in which the division attacked in the evening but failed to capture Combles or The Quadrilateral despite a renewed attack at dawn the following day.[11]  From 15 to 22 September 1916 the 56^th Division took part in the battle of Flers-Courcelette and attacked Bouleaux Wood with the assistance of tanks.  Once again the division was held up by a German strong point at The Quadrilateral.[12]  Finally, during the battles of Morval and Combles (25-28 September 1916) the German defenses crumbled and Bouleaux Wood was finally taken.  Miraculously, Anderson’s company suffered no fatalities during these actions.

Figure 3.  56^th Division Area of Operations, September 1916.

(Image courtesy of the Imperial War Museum)

            From 1-18 October 1916 Anderson and his company took part in the battle of Le Transloy.  In this action the company dug assembly trenches and supported one of the attacking brigades to consolidate gains.  When the offensive was renewed on 7 October, the division's objective was a line of enemy trenches, after which it was to establish a line along the crest of the ridge and then on the forward slope. The 1/1^st Edinburgh Field Company was assigned to the attacking brigades to consolidate these positions. However, the weather and mud were so bad that after three days the division had only gained footholds in the enemy trenches. It was relieved on the night of 9 October.[13]  During this battle the company suffered one fatality: 1709 Sapper William Holywell was killed in action on 2 October.  

            On 30 January 1917, many changes were made within the Territorial Force, including changes of the designations of the field companies.  The table below shows the names of the units and their strengths as of this date as determined by the 56^th Division Headquarters. 

 
            The establishment of a field company was nominally 6 Officers and 211 Other Ranks.  The divisional signal company at full strength consisted of 5 Officers and 170 Other Ranks.  Comparing these numbers with the numbers in the table above, it is obvious that the R.E. companies were at or over strength at this time.  The 1/5^th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment, at full strength, would have had 35 Officers and 1,000 Other Ranks, so it was slightly under strength, no doubt due to its role of having been employed as infantry at some point.[14]

            The remainder of 1917 was not to be kind to the 416^th (Edinburgh) Field Company.  From 9 to 14 April the company took part in the First Battle of the Scarpe in an attack on German positions in support of the division’s 167^th Brigade.[15]  The company did not suffer any fatalities during this action.  However, on 2 May 1917, between the first and second actions at the Scarpe, the company suffered heavily.  The men killed on this date were:[16]

·         422490 Lance Corporal Martin Murphy

·         422454 Lance Corporal Robert James Donaldson

·         422248 Lance Corporal William Seggie Findlay

·         422708 Sapper William Hutchinson

·         422631 Sapper John Flett Rutherford

NOTE: From the regimental numbers of the men listed above it can be determined that numbers in the series 422XXX were those assigned to men originally posted to the 416^th Field Company.  This pattern of numbers will continue throughout this narrative with a few different numbers encountered, relating to replacements posted to the company.

            The 416^th Field Company next took part in the Second Battle of the Scarpe from 3 to 4 May 1917 and lost 422088 Sapper M. Robertson in that battle, killed in action.[17]

            August of 1917 was to be a bitter month for the 416^th Field Company as it prepared for and then took part in the battle of Langemarck.  On 14 August, during the preparation phase of the battle, the company suffered three fatalities:

·         422019 Sergeant A Heatherill, M.M.

·         422654 Lance Corporal T. Cooper

·         422554 Lance Corporal Daniel Syme

            But the worst was yet to come.  During the battle of Langemarck, from 16 to 18 August 1917, the company suffered eight more fatalities.  These casualties were:[18]

On 16 August

·         430008 Sapper W. Turton

·         422534 Sapper Arnold Dennis Toynbee

·         422066 Sapper A. Thomson

On 17 August

·         422171 Sergeant James McDonald

·         422026 Corporal John Paden

·         203983 Sapper John Richard Edson

·         490381 Sapper Thomas Whymark

·         422657 Sapper Edward Turner

            The Langemarck fatalities, 11 of 21 (52.4%), were the most suffered by the company during the time that Anderson served with the unit.  The 56^th Division casualties during the period 13 to 17 August 1917 were 111 Officers and 2,794 Other Ranks.[19] The division’s position at this time was in the line from Surbiton Villas to Westhoek, facing Glencorse Wood and Nonne Bosschen.  The reason for the division’s terrible losses and its failure at Langemarck are described as follows by Major General Frederick A. Dudgeon, C.B., the division's commander.[20]

“Insufficient time for preparation and explanation of the scheme of attack to those taking part, and insufficient time to study the terrain.

The portion of the 25^th Division relieved by the 167^th Brigade had only been in the line twenty-four hours previously, and could not assist much.

Lack of previous preparation.  No dumps of any kind were taken over in the area, and there was insufficient time to form all those that were necessary.

Indifferent communications.  Tracks east of Château Wood were non-existent, and the tapes were soon obliterated by the mud.  (This may have been a divisional engineers

 problem).

Difficulty of maintaining signal communication.  (Was this a problem of the 56^th Divisional Signal Company?).

Fatigue of troops previous to the attack, owing to bad weather.

The condition of the ground over which the attack took place.  The bog at the source of the Hanebeck made a gap between the 169^th and 167^th Brigades, which laid their left and right flanks respectively open to counter-attack.  It also caused great fatigue to the troops.

The nature of the hostile defences and new system of defence in depth.  The enemy’s counter-attacks were so timed as to strike the leading waves about the same time as they reached their objectives, when they were more or less disorganized, and had been unable to consolidate the ground gained.

The concentration of hostile guns opposite the front.  The heavy shelling prevented the moving up of reinforcements, machine guns, and replenishment of ammunition.”

            Things got quiet on the 56^th Division’s front during September and in October 1917 Lieutenant Colonel Edward Newmark Mozeley, D.S.O., R.E. replaced Lieutenant Colonel Gordon as the division’s Commander Royal Engineers.[21]  Activity for the 56^th Division increased towards the end of November when it became heavily engaged in the battle of Cambrai.  From 20 November to 3 December the division saw action at Tadpole Copse and Bourlon Wood and was heavily counter-attacked by the enemy.  Very useful work was done by the 416^th Field Company, when it constructed a bridge over the canal at the Cambrai road while the Germans kept up a persistent shelling of the road, and particularly at the point of intersection with the canal where the company was working.[22]

            On 18 January 1918 Lieutenant Anderson was appointed an Acting Captain and second in command of the 416^th Field Company.[23]  By this time he was the senior Lieutenant in the company and was deemed qualified to command the unit should something happen to the Officer Commanding. 

            On 21 February 1918 Lieutenant Groves turned over command of the 1/5^th Cheshires Pioneers to Major (Temporary Lieutenant Colonel W.A. Churton, D.S.O., T.D.[24]

            Anderson’s appointment as second in command of the company came none to soon, as the O.C., Major James Gordon Goodfellow, M.C., R.E. was killed in action on 23 March 1918.  While directing the digging of a trench and a wiring operation, Major Goodfellow was killed by shell fire.[25]  See Annex A for more details regarding Goodfellow’s life and service).

Figure 4.  Major James Gordon Goodfellow, M.C.

(Photograph courtesy of the Imperial War Museum)

            On 28 March 1918 the units of the 56^th Division became heavily engaged in the battle of Arras.[26]  On 29 March while in command of the 416^th Field Company in place of the recently deceased Major Goodfellow, Acting Captain Frederick William Anderson also was killed by shell fire while supervising trench work near Bailleul.[27]  The deaths of both Major Goodfellow and Acting Captain Anderson by artillery fire is a clear indication of which weapon imposed most threat to soldiers on the battlefield during the Great War.  It was artillery!

            Anderson was buried at Roclincourt Military Cemetery.[28]  His home address at the time of his death was 34 Murrayfield Road in Edinburgh.  Probate of his Will took place in Edinburgh on 20 June 1918.  Confirmation was granted to his brother, Alexander Dudgeon Anderson for his effects valued at £2,381 and 18 shillings (about $158,000 US in 2024 currency.[29]  How Frederick’s effects came to be worth this much is uncertain, but the prosperity of his father as a farmer surely had something to do with it.  William Malcolm Anderson had to be more than a “farmer.”  The 1929 National Probate Index of Scotland shows that at the time of his death William’s estate was valued at £29,503, 17 shillings and 6 pence (approximately $3,235,000 US in 2024 currency).  The value of his estate could explain how the family could afford the Murrayfield Road home in an exclusive section of Edinburgh.

Figure 7.  The Anderson Family Home at 34 Murrayfield Road, Edinburgh.

(Image courtesy of Google Earth)

5. MEDALS, AWARDS AND DECORATIONS

Figure 8.  The Medal Index Card of Captain Frederick William Anderson, R.E.
(Image courtesy of Ancestry.com) 

            The Medal Index Card of Captain Anderson is strange.  It contains no entitlements to medals for the Great War.  This is obviously an administrative error on the part of the individual who prepared the card.  The card shows his full name, rank and Corps, as well as his date of death.  Missing from the card is a notation regarding the “Theatre of War first served in.”  Anderson disembarked at Port Said Egypt on about 3 January 1916, therefore the Code number 3 (for Egypt, from 1 January 1916) should have been entered in the “Theatre of War” block and the “Date of entry therein” should also have been included.   

            Given his record of active service, Anderson would have been entitled to the British War Medal and Victory Medal.  To commemorate his death in the war, a family member, probably his mother and father, would have received the Memorial Plaque.  The solid bronze Memorial Plaque would have been cast with his name in the rectangle above the lion’s head, as shown in Figure 10 below. 

            The British War Medal and Victory Medal appear to be the only medals that Captain Anderson received for his service.   No evidence could be found of any decoration, not even a Mention in Despatches, for his command of his company during the battle of Arras.   

NOTE: The medals and the Memorial Plaque shown below are not those of Captain Anderson.  The images are provided here for illustrative purposes only. 

Annex A
Major James Gordon Goodfellow

Biography: The following biography is from "REMEMBRANCE - Auckland Grammar School Great War Roll of Honour"

ACTING MAJOR JAMES GORDON GOODFELLOW M.C., 1904

416^th (Edinburgh) Field Company, Royal Engineers

Died 23rd March 1918

            James Gordon Goodfellow, called Gordon, was born on 6^th March 1890 in the area between Mangapiko and Paterangi in the Waikato where the family were farming. He was the third son of six children of Thomas Goodfellow and Jane Grace Maclaurin, and he was the second son to lose his life in the War, after his younger brother, Eric Hector Goodfellow, who had died in Mesopotamia in 1916.

            Gordon Goodfellow attended Mt. Eden Primary School before entering Grammar in 1904. He matriculated in 1906 and entered the University College of Canterbury to study engineering. He graduated in 1911, having spent 18 months in the New Zealand Railways workshops during the “practical” component of his studies. On 15^th January 1912, Goodfellow was appointed as a draughtsman in the Lyttelton Harbour Board under Mr. C. J. R. Williams. In this role, Goodfellow was engaged in the planning of an expansion to the port and in broad duties including taking soundings from the harbour after dredging operations.

            He clearly impressed in this work, as he was appointed Assistant Engineer in June 1913. Goodfellow was responsible for a number of projects and, to further his experience, with the support of his employer, he sailed to Sydney and boarded the steam ship Niagara to Vancouver, where he arrived on 22^nd October 1914. After crossing North America, he boarded the steam ship Lapland at New York, arriving at Liverpool, in the United Kingdom, in November 1914. Goodfellow enrolled with the Institute of Civil Engineers on 17^th  November 1914 and sat the Associate Membership examinations, gaining the top marks, and being awarded the Bayless Prize in February 1915.

            Goodfellow was proposed for Associate Membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers in January 1916 and he was duly elected in December 1916. He had moved to Edinburgh, living at 49 Arden Street, and working in the city, when he offered his services to the Royal Engineers. He was appointed to the 1^st Edinburgh (Fortress) Company as a 2^nd  Lieutenant. The Fortress companies were assigned to harbour defences on the Firth of Forth. His appointment was gazetted on 8^th June 1915. It soon became clear there was little risk of a German invasion, therefore, for the remainder of 1915, the 1st Company was engaged in the construction of Prisoner of War camps and light railways in Britain.

            The War then saw the 1^st Edinburgh Company briefly serve in Egypt on Canal defence, before the Company transferred to France in April 1916. Goodfellow was to spend the remainder of his military career on the Western Front. He impressed his superiors and, by the end of the Somme campaign in 1916, he had been promoted to 1st Lieutenant and then to Captain. For his work on the Somme, he was Mentioned in Despatches. He was promoted to Acting Major in December 1917 and he assumed command of the 416^th Field Company (the 1^st Edinburgh Fortress Company having been renamed the 416^th in January 1917). It was in this capacity that he was functioning when the German offensive began.

            On 23^rd March, he was overseeing urgent engineering works when a German artillery shell exploded near him. He was killed instantly by a shrapnel wound to the head. For his gallantry on the Somme during the German offensive, he had been recommended for the Military Cross. This was posthumously gazetted on 3^rd June 1918. Gordon Goodfellow was 28 years old. He is buried in the Roclincourt Military Cemetery, to the east of Arras, near where he fell. His life is commemorated each year by the award of the James Gordon Goodfellow Memorial Prize for the best overall academic performance of a graduate in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Auckland.

Figure 11.  The Medal Index Card of Major James Gordon Goodfellow, M.C., R.E.
(Image courtesy of Ancestry.com) 

FURTHER REMEMBRANCES OF A FRIEND

            "Major James Gordon Goodfellow, R.E., was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Goodfellow, of Hamilton, and of Golf Road, Epsom – the second that has given his life in the service of King and Empire in the Great War; his younger brother, Lieut. E. H. Goodfellow, R. F. A., was killed while serving with the Murut division in Mesopotamia in March 1916. Both brothers were mentioned in despatches. Gordon Goodfellow entered the School in 1904, and, after passing through the Modern side, matriculated in December 1906. He took up engineering as a profession, and was appointed assistant engineer of the Lyttelton Harbour Board, but resigned that position in order to gain experience in Britain. In March (sic), 1915, he passed the examination for A. M. I. C. E. , obtaining the highest marks and securing the Bayliss prize. Three months later he was commissioned to the Royal Engineers. Early this year he was appointed to the command of a field company of the R.E. , one more instance of the appreciation which British military officers are showing of the valuable work performed by young New Zealanders attached to British regiments. At the time of his death he was superintending working parties of his Edinburgh company and of infantry, when a shell exploded near him, and a splinter struck him in the head, killing him instantly. He died on March 23^rd, and was buried by the Presbyterian chaplain on the 25^th , in the military cemetery at Roclincourt, near Arras. His commanding officer writes thus:

“Within a week of his taking over, I realised I had in him a man of quite remarkable organizing power, and of a devotion to duty wholly admirable. As the short weeks of his tenure of command passed, the efficiency of the 416^th Field Company, the precision of the work in which it and its commander were engaged, and the rapidity of execution of all that they were asked to do, became more notable than in the case of any other company I have served with in the war. And all this splendid work was done with a quiet reserve, with a soldierly reticence, which were as though refusing all the praise which he earned so well. I shall never get a company commander like him again. ”

Annex B

REFERENCES: 

Books 

DUDLEY WARD, C.H.  The 56^th Division (1^st London Territorial Division).  John Murray, London, 1921. 

Census 

1. 1891 Census of Scotland.

2. 1901 Census of Scotland.  

Civil Documents 

1. Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Cemetery Index, No. Fr. 184, Roclincourt Military Cemetery, France.

2. UK Probate Calendar, 1918, p. 41.

3. National Probate Index, Scotland, 1918, p. 22.

4. National Probate Index, Scotland, 1929, p. A 47.  

Family Trees 

Ancestry.com:  Frederick William Anderson Family Tree (by fross11) 

Internet Web Sites 

1. The Long, Long Trail: Field Companies of the Royal Engineers.

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-corps-of-royal-engineers-in-the-first-world-war/field-companies-of-the-royal-engineers/

2. The Long, Long Trail: 56^th (London) Division.

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/56th-1st-london-division/

3. Wikipedia: City of Edinburgh (Fortress) Royal Engineers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Edinburgh_(Fortress)_Royal_Engineers

4. Aukland Grammar School Archives.

https://ags.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/6931

5. World War 1 Operational Theatres of War, 1914-1920.

file:///C:/Users/DeSantis/OneDrive/Desktop/Royal%20Engineers%20Research/Theatres%20of%20the%20Great%20War/WW1%20Operational%20Theatres%20of%20War%201914-1920.htm 

London Gazettes 

1. Supplement to the London Gazette, 16 June 1915, p. 5845.

2. Supplement to the London Gazette, 23 October 1917, p. 10895.

3. Supplement to the London Gazette, 11 March 1918, p. 3090.  

Military Documents 

1. Medal Index Card (Frederick William Anderson).

2. Medal Index Card (James Gordon Goodfellow).

3. War Diary, 416^th Field Company, pages for 24 and 28 March 1918.  

Periodicals 

Battle Honours of the Royal Engineers. (BHRE) The Royal Engineers Journal.  The Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, Kent, 1925-1932.

 

ENDNOTES: