Frederick William Gidley 1894 - 1917

Frederick William Gidley was a Lieutenant in the Essex Regiment, having previously been a Private in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was posted as missing on March 27, 1917.
Frederick William was the oldest of six children of Gustavus Gidley and his wife, nee Jordan. Gustavus was one of the three tailor brothers in partnership in Notting Hill and Shepherds Bush, and whose ancestors came from Winkleigh, Devon.
In 1911 the family was living in Iffley Road, Hammersmith and Frederick was a boy clerk in the civil service, GPO Stores, living at home. He was a first cousin of Geoffrey Damarel Gidley and Robert Dudley Gidley, which meant that his grandmother, Elizabeth Gidley, who died in 1925, lost three of her grandsons to the war in less than a year, between the months of May 1916 and April 1917.
Frederick's Medal Rolls index card is short on details, but it records that he first served in Egypt. Obviously he served with distinction, as he was given a commission. At the outbreak of the First World War, Palestine (now Israel) was part of the Turkish Empire and it was not entered by Allied forces until December 1916. Frederick's particular battalion had been evacuated from Gallipoli and went on to Alexandria in December 1915, which may be where Frederick joined them, as he was not awarded the 15 Star, just the British and the Victory Medals. Yvonne Fenter in her posting on Lives of the First World War on Frederick has researched his regiment's War Diary and records that he went missing in the First Battle of Gaza. Frederick's great niece Linda Holloway has also added this photograph of him from their family album, which I hope she won't mind if I use here.
Frederick's body was never found. He is commemorated on the Jerusalem Memorial.