London 25th Regt

Obituary

We deeply regret to announce the death of 2nd Lieutenant F. S. Boshell, who died in action a few weeks ago shortly after his marriage and return to the front, and we take this opportunity of expressing our sincerest sympathy with his wife and parents.

He joined the Third Line at Putney early in 1916 and was, we understand, employed on work in connection with poison gas, having transferred to the Royal Engineers. To quote a letter from one of his closest friends "He voluntarily left a comparatively 'safe' corps for the hundred-fold greater risks attaching to an Infantry Commission. No 'C.O.' ever hated war and miltarism more whole heartedly than he. And to one of his fibre the sacrifice of a principle would be the hardest sacrifice to make, yet he felt it to be his duty. He was under none of the conventionally 'patriotic' illusions about war. He saw with disgust the attitude of some of our own extremists and deplored the militarist obsession of those who camly contemplate an indefinite prolongation of the slaughter and waste unseparable from war. He was, I think, a higher degree of heroism than that of less reflective and critical minds, who see romance and glamour in the thought of dying a soldier's death, or of those the struggle presents itself as a simple and straighforward issue between light and darkness - between sullied good and unqualified evil."

[The Londoner magazine, Feb 1919 - V.III, No.2 pg.52.]

In Memory of

Second Lieutenant FREDERICK BOSHELL

Royal Berkshire Regiment 1st Bn.

who died age 26 on 23 July 1918

Son of Stephen and Maria Boshell, of London; husband of Florence Cecilia Boshell, of The Barracks, Reading.

Remembered with honour

St. Amand British Cemetery.

Commemorated in perpetuity by
the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

St. Amand Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France

Location Information
St. Amand is a village in the southern part of the Department of the Pas-de-Calais, 17 kilometres east of Doullens. The British Cemetery is on the northern side of the village.

Historical Information
The British Cemetery was begun in April, 1916, and used by fighting units and Field Ambulances until August, 1918 (though in 1917 it was practically closed), particularly by the 37th and the 56th (London) Divisions.

There are now over 200, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, a small number are unidentified.

The cemetery covers an area of 1,232 square metres and is enclosed by a low red brick wall.

[Courtesy of Commonwealth War Graves Commission]