Name
Frank Freeman
1878
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
22/07/1917
39
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
4003
15th (The King’s) Hussars
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ANZAC CEMETERY, SAILLY-SUR-LA-LYS
I. I. 3.
France
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Royston Town Memorial, Not on the Barkway memorials
Pre War
Frank Freeman was born in 1878 in Barkway, Hertfordshire, the son of Richard George and Mary Ann Freeman and one of nine children.
On the 1881 Census the family were living at Barkway Road, Barkway and his father was working as a coal carter. They remained in Barkway in 1891 but had moved to a dwelling near the Eagle Tavern. His father died in 1892, aged 52 and on the 1901 Census his widowed mother and brothers, Frederick (16) and Reginald (14) were living at Eagle Tavern Cottages, Barkway.
Frank's regimental number suggests that he joined the Hussars sometime between January 1899 and May 1900, serving with the 15th Battalion. On the 1911 Census he was recorded serving as a Private with the 15th Hussars at Potchefstroom, Transvaal, South Africa. He had also served in Egypt, Sierra Leone, Ireland and India from which he had returned nine months before the war, according to one source.
Wartime Service
Frank was already a serving soldier in the 15th Hussars, which were stationed at Longmoor, Hampshire at the outbreak of war. He arrived in France on 16 August 1914 and saw considerable fighting in the opening months of the war, seeing action in the First and Second Battles of Ypres.
Frank died of wounds received in action, from an allied anti-aircraft shell, on 22 July 1917, aged 39, and is buried in Anzac Cemetery, Sailly-Sur-La-Lys, France.
Additional Information
His brother Reginald, sole legatee, received a war gratuity of £17 and pay owing of £34 8s 2d.
His mother received a dependant's pension of 8 shillings a week. She was then said to be living at 14 Porten Road, West Kensington. She may have moved to be near to a relative as the card does refer to Frank Freeman with reg. no. 4003 in the 15th Hussars.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Paul Johnson
