Private Frederick George Applegate

Frederick was the youngest child of George John Applegate and his wife Eliza (nee Spyers). He was born in East Ham, London, and his birth is shown in the register for April to June 1894.
Frederick’s siblings were Alice, John, Eliza, Albert, Alfred, Grace, Frank and May plus two who died young. By 1911 the family had moved to Wimbledon Park and were living in a large, 9 roomed house, in Arthur Road. John, Eliza, Alfred and Albert are not shown on the census and may have moved out by then as they would all have been in their twenties. Frederick is shown as being a Draper.
Frederick enlisted in the Norfolk Regiment when he was 20 years and 10 months old. He was just 5ft 3½inches tall, weighed 122lbs, had a chest measurement of 35inches with an expansion of 2inches. There are no distinguishing features listed on his record. His regimental number was 17842.
Shortly after he transferred to the 1st Battalion of the Essex Regiment, number 20539 and on 28 July 1915 he embarked on the “Royal Edward” from Avonmouth. The majority on board were reinforcements for the British 29th Infantry Division, with members of the Royal Army Medical Corps. All were destined for Gallipoli. Royal Edward was reported off the Lizard on the evening of 28 July and had arrived at Alexandria on 10 August. Royal Edward sailed for Moudros on the island of Lemnos, a staging point for the Dardanelles.
On the morning of 13 August, Royal Edward passed the British hospital ship Soudan, heading in the opposite direction. Oberleutnant zur See Heino von Heimburg in the German submarine UB-14 was off the island of Kandeloussa and saw both ships. He allowed Soudan to pass unmolested and focused his attention on the unescorted Royal Edward some 6 nautical miles (11 km) off Kandelioussa. He launched one of UB-14's two torpedoes from about 1 mile (1.6 km) away and hit Royal Edward in the stern. She sank by the stern within six minutes.
Royal Edward was able to get off an SOS before losing power, and Soudan arrived on the scene at 10:00 after making a 180° turn and rescued 440 men in six hours. Two French destroyers and some trawlers rescued another 221. According to authors James Wise and Scott Baron, Royal Edward's death toll was 935 and was high because Royal Edward had just completed a boat drill and the majority of the men were below decks re-stowing their equipment. Other sources report different numbers of casualties, from 132 to 1,386 or 1,865. An Admiralty casualty list, published in The Times in September 1915, named 13 officers and 851 troops as missing believed drowned.*
What is clear, however, is that Frederick was one of the unlucky ones and he is commemorated on the Helles Memorial and in St Luke’s Church, Wimbledon Park.
*Wikipedia