A/CQMS. Frederick Arthur Crosby
British Army 2nd Btn. York and Lancaster Regiment
from:Bossal, Yorkshire
(d.28th May 1941)
Fred Crosby was born in Barton-le-Willows Yorkshire on 14th March 1915 and grew up in the surrounding area of Howsham, Claxton and Bossal. He was the son of Frederick James Crosby, who had seen action in the First World War, and Louisa Stephenson, one of a family of 23 children. He married Doreen Plater Wood in Portsmouth in 1935, and was almost immediately shipped out to the Sudan, leaving Doreen expecting a child. He never came home again nor ever met his daughter, named Joan.
At the outbreak of World War 2, he was sent with his battalion to Cairo and was then shipped to Crete on HMS Ajax in November 1940. Alongside the Black Watch and the Leicestershire Regiment, Fred and his mates in the 2nd Yorks and Lancs were tasked with protecting Heraklion Airfield. On 28th of May 1941, he was killed during an attack by the Germans.
He is now buried and remembered at Suda Bay Commonwealth War Grave, alongside many of his regiment. His name is also registered on a war memorial plaque on the wall of his local church at Bossal in Yorkshire.
