Regiment: Royal Sussex, 1st/4th Battalion, 53rd Division
Service No: TF/200766
Date & place of birth: 1877, Coates, near Petworth
Date & place of death: 26 March 1917 (aged 40), Gaza
Private Frederick Carver was the oldest Petworth man to die at age 40; though in the Royal Sussex Regiment, his battalion happened to go to the Middle East rather than the Western Front as most of his comrades did. He was in the same division as Alec Gill and killed in the same battle on the same day, the only record we have of that happening to two Petworth men.
Family background
Frederick Carver was born in 1877 in Coates, the son of Charles and Jane Carver. Charles was a farm labourer; they had one other son William Charles and three daughters, Annie Sarah, Florence Jane, and Harriet. The mother died in 1883. In 1911 Frederick was still single and living with his father and stepmother in Coates Cottages, Coates, working as a farm labourer.
Military service
Private Carver enlisted in Horsham. He served in the Balkans and then the Egyptian theatre, being killed in action at the first Battle of Gaza (a strip of land sadly destined to be the scene of much conflict over the years.)
Death and commemoration
Private Frederick John Carver was killed in action at Gaza on 26 March 1917 at the age of 40. He is commemorated on the Jerusalem Memorial MR.34. He was awarded the Victory, British and 15 star medals