Name
(Louis) Frank Harrowell
1884
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
06/05/1918
34
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
55366
Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)
55th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LOOS MEMORIAL
Panel 136.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Watford Borough Roll of Honour, Berkhamsted Town Memorial, St Peter's Church Memorial, Berkhamsted
Pre War
Frank Harrowell was born in 1884 in Berkhamsted, the son of William and Lizzie Harrowell (nee Davis) and one of eleven children. He was baptised as Louis Frank Harrowell on 27 January 1884 in St Peter's Church, Great Berkhamsted. His parents had married on 21 March 1868 at St Mary’s, Northchurch, Herts.
On the 1891 Census the family were living at High Street, Berkhamsted where his father was working as a builder and 7 year old Frank was a scholar.
On the 1901 Census Frank, aged 17, was then calling himself Louis F Harrowell and living with his brother Harvey and his wife at Khaki Villa, Vicarage Road, Watford, where he was working as a solicitor’s clerk.
By the 1911 Census Frank, then using the surname Lewis, and 'wife' Ada, were living at 150 Oaklands Road, Hanwell, Middlesex and Frank was working as a traveller to a builder's merchant. They had two children, Joyce (b.1907) and Arthur (b.1909). Son Frank was born in 1911 and daughter Iris followed in 1917. All the children were registered with the surname of Lewis and born in the Brentford district which includes Hanwell. Their mother's surname (recorded from July 1911) was Summers.
He married Ada Summers in the summer of 1916 in St St Pancras, London, possibly because he had been called up to fight on the western front.
Wartime Service
Frank enlisted with the surname of Lewis in Ealing, Middx, initially joining the Royal Fusiliers as Private 42328, later transferring to the Machine Gun Corps.
He was killed in action on 6 May 1918. He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, Belgium.
Additional Information
His widow received a war gratuity of £8 and pay owing of £7 6s 3d. She also received a pension of £10s 9d a week for herself and her children. His mother died in 1926 and his father in 1932, both in Berkhamsted.
His widow Ada later adopted the true surname of Harrowell and was listed on the 1939 register living with three of her children in Charles Street Berkhamsted. She never remarried and died in Berkhamsted in 1960.
There is an article about Frank Harrowell in the West Herts and Watford Observer dated 25 May 1918.
Brother to Albert Harrowell who died in 1917 and is named on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Belgium.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
SJonty Wild, ue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
