Private Frederick (Fred) James Dewis

32822 Border Regiment

Born 1888, Glenridding. Died November 1936 Aged 49 Glenridding

Son of Mary Jane Dewis (later Mary Jane Brown)

Half Brother of Frank Brown

Husband of Mary Kyles

Father of Percy, Nora, Thomas, Margaret, Frederick and Frank

Frederick (Fred) James Dewis was baptised on the 5th August 1888 in Patterdale. His mother, Mary Jane Dewis, was not married at the time and so we do not know who Fred’s father was. In 1891 Fred was living with his mother and grandparents at the Rake Cottages in Glenridding, as his grandfather was a miner at Greenside. His mother married David Brown on 15th Feb 1893. David was also a miner and lived at the Rakes. It appears young Fred stayed with his grandparents rather than join his mother and her new family, and by 1901 was living a 1 The Square in Glenridding with his grand mother Margaret. He would have attended Patterdale School, alongside contemporaries such as Jack Bell, Ernest Lake, and Glen Pattinson, but would probably have left by the time his half-brothers and sisters, including Frank Brown, joined the school.

We know that Fred was a keen member of the Patterdale Football Team, and is almost certainly featured on the 1906 team photo which we believe also included Ernest and Glen, and well as the 1914 photo from which his picture on the left is taken and which is also shown in full below.

On the 30th November 1908 Fred married Mary Kyles at Patterdale Church. By then he was working as a miner at Greenside, and she was working at the Ullswater Hotel. They moved to Number 3 Halton Terrace and by the time war broke out had had 3 children, twins Percy and Nora (in 1909), Thomas (in 1911) and Margaret (1914). Sadly Nora died aged just 11 months in 1910. It was just over a month after Margaret’s christening in April 1914 that Fred took part in the triumphant replay against Appleby in the Penrith and District Cup of April 1914, which Ullswater won 3-2. Fred is standing behind William Stockdale, the one holding the cup in the photo below which is also shown on our Ullswater Football Club page.

We’re not sure exactly when Fred joined up but it is possible that it was later on in the war, and possibly after his half-brother Frank. He was certainly at home in 1917 at some point as Mary gave birth to another son, Frederick Joseph, in April 1918 (and by then Fred was a soldier as this is what is recorded in his son’s baptism register). We do know that Fred joined the Border Regiment and it is likely that he ended up in the same battalion as Frank Brown, Jack Watson, and Jack Bell, which was the 2/4 Battalion. We know that this battalion served in India and Afghanistan from early 1915 to 1919.  From March 1916 the battalion was stationed in and around Peshawar, and then took part in the Mohmand Blockade from February to May 1917. It is possible Fred was with the battalion when his half-brother Frank Brown died on 30th October 1918, aged just 22 in Peshawar, Pakistan, although as he was not awarded the Victory Medal it is probable that he did not arrive there until after the 11th November Armistice. We know that Fred won the North West Frontier Service clasp to his India General Service medal.  This means that he took part in the Third Anglo-Afghan War which began on the 6th May 1919 and  ended with an armistice on the 8th August 1919, alongside Jack Bell, and Jack Watson.

When he returned from the war Fred started working again at Greenside and in January 1921 Mary gave birth to another son, Frank, possibly named after his step-Uncle who had died in the war. Fred and Frank’s mother Mary Ann died in October 1934 aged 65. Fred’s daughter Margaret married Albert Riley, a blacksmith from Penrith, on 30th November 1935, and at the time the family were still living at Halton Terrace. Sadly Fred himself died just over a year later and was buried in Patterdale on the 6th December 1936, aged just 49.

We’re not sure what happened to all the children, although we do know son Frederick married Ruth Rodd in March 1946, and eldest son Percy remained in Glenridding living in 4 Low Glenridding until his death in 1968. Fred’s wife Mary died 21 Mar 1961 whilst living at Harefield Kirby Thore, and was buried at Patterdale alongside her husband.

If you can add anything to the story of Fred or his family please contact us.

The Ullswater Rovers Football Team in 1914. Fred is in the middle behind William Stockdale who has the cup, and to the left of Earnest Roach. The other team members are named on our 1914 Ullswater Football Team page.

Fred’s half-brother Frank Brown, who served with him in the Border Regiment and who died in Pakistan in October 1918.