Name
Frank Ward (Walter)
1894
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
03/09/1916
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Rifleman
S/16468
Rifle Brigade
16th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ANCRE BRITISH CEMETERY, BEAUMONT-HAMEL
Plot II, Row D, Grave 17.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Watford Borough Roll of Honour, Not on the Radlett Memorials
Pre War
Frank Walter (later Ward) was born on 16 May 1894 in Radlett, Herts, the son of Daniel and Elizabeth Walter (nee Mintern) and one of three children. He was baptised on 11 November 1894 in Radlett. (His parents had married on 25 December 1886 at the Parish Church of St George’s Hanover Square, London.).
His father died in 1897, aged 35 and on the 1901 Census, Frank, aged 6, was living in Over Kingcombe, Dorset, with his grandparents, William and Asenath Minten. His grandfather was working as a shoemaker. At the same time, hs widowed mother was living with his two sisters Beatrice and Elizabeth, at 21 Derby Road, Watford. She was running a lodging house with nine lodgers and one servant. Later the same year his mother remarried to William Arthur Ward (N.B. William Ward was listed as a lodger on the 1901 Census).
Frank must have moved back to Watford as he attended Callowland Board School, Watford, from 29 February 1904 to 24 January 1907 and on the 1911 Census he was living with his mother, stepfather, siblings and five boarders at 1 Gladstone Road, Watford. Strangely the Census records Frank as having been born in Kingcombe, Dorset which is incorrect but he was working as a pawnbroker's assistant.
Frank married Eliza Margaret Warrington on 17 June 1916 at St Barnabas, Bethnal Green by special licence. He gave his surname as Walter at that time. He gave his address as Bow, Middlesex on enlistment, and his widow gave her address on pension records as 55 Hamilton Road, Grove Road, Bow.
Wartime Service
Frank Walter (Ward) enlisted in Lambeth, Surrey and served with the 16th Battalion, Rifle Brigade. He seems to have given his surname as Ward on enlistment. CWGC and other army records show Frank as serving under the surname Ward, alias Walter.
He was killed in action on 3 September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme at Beaumont Hamel.
The 16th Rifle Brigade were very much a London Battalion, having largely been raised around St Pancras, and its losses on 3 September were crippling. There were nearly 450 casualties with over 200 missing or dead, of which Frank Walter was one.
He is buried in Ancre British Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel, France.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £3 and pay owing of £2 18s 2d. She also received a pension of 13s 9d a week.
Eliza remarried on 26 November 1924 at St Mark’s, Battersea, London, to Percy Charles Roworth.
N.B. CWGC has listed Frank under both names Ward and Walter.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk), www.londonwarmemorial.co.uk
