Memorial Plaque
PTE F. MASKELL
KING’S ROYL RIFS
30 JULY 1915
Connection with Effingham
He was not native to Effingham but was (allegedly) residing there when he enlisted. He seems to have enlisted at the same time, and died at the same time, as Frederick William Barnett who is also named on the Effingham memorial.
Genealogy
This has not yet been established with absolute certainty but it appears highly likely that the following account correctly identifies his origins.
His SDGW record (see below) claims that he was born in Ockham, where there had indeed been Maskell families for many generations. The GRO birth index offers just two Ockham-born candidates born in the period consistent with later service in the War. One of these is the Frederick Maskell born there in 1881 to parents Edward and Caroline [GRO Ref: Guildford 2a 59, 1881 (Q3)]. It is proven beyond doubt that this Frederick married Annie Mary Morris in 1906, enlisted with the East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) in June 1916 and survived the War to raise several children in Hersham, Walton-upon-Thames. The other is Frederick William Maskell born in Ockham in 1892 [GRO Ref: Guildford 2a 63, 1892 (Q4)].
We believe that the man commemorated on the Effingham memorial is this latter Frederick William.
Frederick William was born illegitimately to Charlotte Maskell, daughter of Thomas and Fruzann. Charlotte was born in Ockham in 1871 [GRO Ref: Guildford 2a 54, 1871 (Q2)], although her older brother Edward had been born in Effingham. In the 1881 Census she is enumerated wrongly as “Catherine”: