Publisher's Synopsis
Shepshed's Freddy Smith disappeared on the Somme in 1916, aged twenty-one, in circumstances that have never been fully explained. It was not until two generations later that his great nephew, Russell Fisher, decided to investigate his story.
Soldiers of Shepshed Remembered 1914-1919 is the culmination of many years of research, not only into the story of Freddy Smith, but of many others from among the 700 or so men from this small, northwest Leicestershire town who served their country in the Great War. They served in several theatres of war - France, Flanders, Greece, Bulgaria, Palestine and Sierra Leone - in a variety of roles, as infantrymen, tank crew, cavalrymen, pilots and sailors. One hundred and eighty four of them laid down their lives, an exceptionally high proportion of those who enlisted.
Careful research has uncovered many of their stories: the naval commander who was one of only six men to survive the explosion of his ship at Jutland; the young lieutenant who took on Germany's first ever tanks; the stretcher-bearer who raced into no-man's land to rescue a wounded comrade, and was more fearful of the consequences of ignoring an officer than he was of enemy fire; the Military Medal winner who threw away his award in shame; the pilot who lost his life to 'friendly fire'; the Engineer who hatched an ingenious plan to flood the enemy trenches, and the men who discovered a common humanity with their adversaries in no-man's land at Christmas 1914.
The book also includes a section on the various memorials erected in the town to honour the dead, and an insight into life on the home front, from the tragedies incurred by the influenza pandemic of 1918-19, to the euphoria that greeted the signing of the Armistice and the Great Victory Parade held in Shepshed in July 1919.
