Notes
The Bradford Grammar School website (see References) states: 'Frederick Allan was the eldest of four children of Edwin Walter Raistrick and Mary (nee Davison) who married in 1896. Edwin was the son of a woollen waste merchant, but he became a school master
employed by the City Council and lived his whole life in Idle. At some point Frederick decided he would be called by his second name, by which he will henceforth be known. He started at the Bradford Grammar School in September 1908 at the same time as his younger brother Edgar Vincent Raistrick. Although Edgar was two years younger than Allan, they were both in the same forms for three years, commencing with Third Classical Lower. However, after a poor year, in 1911-12 Allan repeated Fourth Classical while his younger brother went through to Fifth Classical. Allan left in the summer of 1912 to work for a J. Wood & Sons, of Bentley Street Bradford, perhaps to be identified with Joseph Wood & Co. stuff merchants. When the war began he was eager to serve, enlisting on 29th August 1914 days after the Battle of Mons, although he was not yet eighteen.
Allan was described as ‘a very promising recruit’ to the 8th Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment which was formed at Pontefract. Despite his youth and inexperience he was promoted to Lance Corporal after only three months, then Corporal, and within a year he was made Acting Sergeant. He went to France on 27th August 1915 when he was still below the age to serve overseas, which may have contributed to his employment at the base as
an instructor in bomb throwing. In October he was marked out for a commission and on 8th November he proceeded to the Officer Training School at Bedford, subsequently serving with a reserve battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment. Allan spent a quiet 1916 serving in the U.K. and it was not until late January 1917 that he was attached to 7th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment and proceeded to France. This was the same battalion in which another Old Bradfordian, Captain Arthur Aubrey Clarke, was serving. Allan was his younger contemporary at school.
There is no record of when Raistrick joined 7th Leicesters in the field, although it is known that he was home on leave in August. Clarke was killed on 1st or 2nd October 1917 during a strong German counter-attack near Polygon Wood in the Ypres Salient. On the afternoon of 5th October the remnant of the battalion moved up to a support line, which consisted of consolidated shell holes, while under intermittent shelling. Raistrick was severely wounded
and was evacuated to hospital in Rouen, then to Manchester and finally to Ashover in Derbyshire. However, he was too badly injured ever to return to duty. In August 1918 he was discharged to his parents’ home. In September, he received the honorary rank of Captain and on 2nd October he was discharged from the army. He died at home from his injuries on 16th November and was buried at Idle Upper Chapel (Congregational). His family had been
strong supporters of the war effort. Allan’s younger brother was commissioned in 1917, although it appears he did not serve overseas. Their father was too old to serve abroad, but he did his bit as a Sergeant in the Bradford City Volunteers, a home defence force.'