56296 A/Bdr Frederick Vincent Keen, Royal Field Artillery

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Arrived overseas: 23 August 1914.

Connection: Victory Medal.

Frederick Vincent Keen was technically still a boy - he was 17 years and 10 months old - when he attested with the Royal Field Artillery at Oxford on the 8th March 1909. He signed up for six years' service with the colours and six years on the reserve and so was still in uniform when Britain went to war in August 1914. He served in France from the 31st December 1914 and remained there until 1915. A detailed service history does not survive for this man but we know that he was in Salonika between 1915 and 1917 and then in Egypt from 1917 until 1919. He was discharged on the 7th March 1921, 12 years to the day since he had attested, and having been issued with a new army number, 1003005, in the interim.

Notes in a Royal Artillery enlistment register record that his rank on discharge was that of corporal and that his character was rated as very good. There is also a note that prior to service as a career soldier, he had served with the Hampshire, Isle of Wight (Special Reserve) RFA, regimental number 3313.

Frederick survived the war and died in Witney, Oxfordshire on the 31st March 1971. He would have been about eighty years old. Medal index card courtesy Ancestry/WFA.

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