Fred Hagger – Died 29 Mar 1917, France & Flanders, Private 16th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment.  Service No 57855.  Buried Mesnil-St Nicaise Churchyard, France.  Enlisted Bedford 15 Jan 1915.  Awarded Victory and British War medals.  He is also commerated on the war memorials at Old Fletton and Hitchin in Hertfordshire.

The 16th Bat were mobilised in Jan 1916 and involved in various actions on the Western Front.

Fred was born in 1881 and baptised at Southoe, Huntingdonshire in January 1881, his parents were Frederick and Mary, his father being a publican at a pub on the Great North Road, Southoe, the building is still standing but no longer a pub.  Fred married Mary Ann Usher at Buckden in April 1906, they had three children Phyllis Mary, Fred Metcalfe and Percy George.  In 1911 Fred and Mary Ann plus the first two children were living in Hitchin and Fred is shown as a carpenter.

We can trace Fred’s ancestry back to his Great Grandparents Frederick and Maria Hagger who married in 1798 at Long Stanton, Cambridgeshire and after having 3 children they moved to Bourn also in Cambridgeshire and had a total of 12 children.  Fredercik was shown as a Publican or Farmer in Parish Baptism Registers.  There were Haggers in Bourn much earlier but we have not yet managed to establish a connection.