DARBY, Frederick Henry

Frederick Darby was born in 1891, the son of Albert and Julia Darby of Clent View, Belle Vue Road, Wordsley. Before the Great War he was employed as a glass-maker at Webb Corbett in Wordsley. He volunteered for the Rifle Brigade and served in the 7th Battalion in the 14th Division. They went to the Western Front in mid-1915 and were posted to the Ypres Salient and fought in the second battle of Ypres. They moved to the Somme in 1916 and entered the front line during the August struggle for Delville Wood and fortified villages nearby. It was a long and costly battle and Rifleman Frederick Darby was killed in action on the 16th September. He was 25 years of age and is commemorated on the Thiepval and Wordsley Memorials.