233751 Pte. Frederick James Howell British Army 3rd Btn. South Wales Borderers from:Newport My grandfather, Frederick Howell, volunteered for the South Wales Borderers in March 1915 in Newport, he was just 17. He told me that when he was in the trenches the men either side of him were killed by snipers' bullets, he couldn't understand how he survived. He talked about the conditions in the trenches and how he was lucky to have been invalided out, having lost some of his toes as a result of frostbite. He walked with a drunken lilt for the rest of his life and counted himself lucky. He talked about Ypres (which he called Wipers) and sang Mademoiselle from Armentieres to me!
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